Today this story would have made the headlines with the EPA's paranoia about spilling a little a bit of fuel back into the ground it came out of in the first place. Before the EPA, single point pressure refueling systems and astronomical fuel prices, spilling a few gallons of av gas on the ground was an everyday occurrence at almost any airport. If it was just a gallon or so, we just let it evaporate and forgot about it. It if was more than that, we would have the airport fire department interrupt their euchre game and come to the spill scene. They would usually flush the spilled gasoline into the closest storm drain and forget about it. If it was way out on the ramp and away from any building or aircraft, they would burn it off.
The outfit I worked for had exclusive fueling rights at this airport for all aircraft except the ones operated by the six airlines that had their own fueling facilities. The city closest to the airport had a National League Baseball franchise and this brought several charter flights to the airport during the baseball season. United Air Lines had a contract with a National League to provide transportation to all the teams except the Dodgers. Since United didn't regularly service the airport, our outfit provided fueling services to them.
One warm summer night, United had flown in a visiting team on a DC-6 and was dead heading out with the crew that consisted of a pilot, copilot, flight engineer and 2 stewardesses. Myself and an ex-Marine took the 100 octane fuel truck down to the aircraft to refuel it. They had parked the aircraft well away from the regular airline gate areas. We flipped a coin to see who worked the wing and who worked the ground. I lost the toss and stayed on the ground. The flight engineer met me as soon as we positioned the fuel truck under the wing and gave me the fuel loading. Then he went back up the boarding steps into the airplane. The ex-Marine drug the fuel hose up on the wing and we began the fueling process.
I need to explain the dead-man control so this story will make any sense to those readers that never fueled aircraft in that era. There was a concern that the person up on the wing would pass out from inhaling the gas fumes that escaped as the tank filled up. We pumped the fuel in pretty fast - between 200 and 300 gallons per minute. Every pumper truck was required to have a dead man control. This was a pneumatic control that you were supposed to hold in your left hand while handling the gasoline nozzle with your right hand. The idea was that if you passed out; you would lose your grip on the dead man valve and that would shut the pump off. In practice, the dead man control was never used except during an inspection or training session. In the real world, the dead man control stayed on the ground and a big wooden clothes pin was used to simulate a person holding it.
On this night the ex-Marine was up on the wing pumping in gas and the dead man control hanging on the side of the the fuel truck clamped with the big clothes pin. I was draining the various fuel system sumps to check for fuel contamination as the ground man was required to do. Suddenly, gasoline started pouring off the trailing edge of the left wing. The ex-Marine must has fainted! I ran for the dead man control and removed the clothes pin to stop the pump. We later estimated that about 100 gallons had been spilled.
When the gasoline has stopped flowing, I ran to the top of the boarding steps to see what was happening on top of the wing. I expected to see my partner passed out from fume inhalation. Instead he was staring intently into the aircraft cabin window. He had propped the fuel nozzle open - another old, but illegal, trick. My scream about the overflowing the tank brought his attention away from the window.
Then the aircraft boarding door opened and one of the stewardesses was standing there wearing nothing but a very very sheer see-through nightie. Soon the other one appeared behind her and she was dressed the same way. "We just couldn't wait to get out of those stuffy uniforms and into something more comfortable. Do you have the fuel bill ready for the flight engineer to sign?"
And that's the truth!
Bowinkle T. Propwash
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