Narrative:

After arriving to a dark aircraft in boston prior to sunrise; and after external power was applied; the fueler came up to the cockpit and said he accidentally overfueled us by approximately 1000 pounds. After reviewing the fuel page; we discovered that the outer tanks were both reading 0. We explained this to him; but the fueler said he had never heard about fueling airbuses without power applied to the airplane. He didn't know it was an issue. We simultaneously notified dispatch and operations; who sent the fuel supervisor to the aircraft. The ground ops supervisor said he 'sort of knew something about filling on the batteries'; but he wasn't 'really sure.' dispatch gave the go ahead to add even more fuel so that the outers would be full. 3000 pounds more; on top of the 1000 pounds he already overfilled. Upon completion; he came into the cockpit with the second fuel receipt. He did not know the difference between having ground power plugged into the aircraft; and having power applied to the aircraft. Our approved fuel vendor in boston is not familiar with our fueling manual; which states if the aircraft is filled with no electrical power; the fueler must contact either company maintenance or inform the flight crew.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A contract fueler was unaware of special procedures required to fuel an A319 using ship's battery power only. An improper fueling configuration resulted requiring additional fuel to be loaded to achieve a proper distribution.

Narrative: After arriving to a dark aircraft in Boston prior to sunrise; and after external power was applied; the fueler came up to the cockpit and said he accidentally overfueled us by approximately 1000 LBS. After reviewing the fuel page; we discovered that the outer tanks were both reading 0. We explained this to him; but the fueler said he had never heard about fueling Airbuses without power applied to the airplane. He didn't know it was an issue. We simultaneously notified Dispatch and Operations; who sent the Fuel Supervisor to the aircraft. The Ground Ops Supervisor said he 'sort of knew something about filling on the batteries'; but he wasn't 'really sure.' Dispatch gave the go ahead to add even more fuel so that the outers would be full. 3000 LBS more; on top of the 1000 LBS he already overfilled. Upon completion; he came into the cockpit with the second fuel receipt. He did not know the difference between having ground power plugged into the aircraft; and having power applied to the aircraft. Our approved fuel vendor in Boston is not familiar with our fueling manual; which states if the aircraft is filled with no electrical power; the fueler must contact either company Maintenance or inform the Flight Crew.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.