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A B-737 crew declared an emergency and diverted after a 1;000 pound fuel imbalance developed and upon landing the imbalance was 2;000 pounds.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1076262 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201303 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.ARTCC |
| State Reference | US |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Cruise |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Component | |
| Aircraft Component | Fuel Tank |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Pilot Flying First Officer |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue |
Narrative:
Climbing through approximately FL310 we noticed a fuel imbalance between the left and right tank. The left fuel gauge was yellow and 1;000 pounds out of balance. As we were trying to determine the cause of the imbalance it worsened to 1;500 pounds in less than a couple of minutes. The captain thought the most prudent and safest course of action would be to land short since we may have a fuel leak in the left tank. I agreed. In the 10 minutes it took to descend the fuel was now 2;000 pounds out of balance. Since an emergency was declared we decided that it would be best to land out of balance and thereby violating the afm fuel balance limitation.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A B-737 crew declared an emergency and diverted after a 1;000 pound fuel imbalance developed and upon landing the imbalance was 2;000 pounds.
Narrative: Climbing through approximately FL310 we noticed a fuel imbalance between the left and right tank. The left fuel gauge was yellow and 1;000 pounds out of balance. As we were trying to determine the cause of the imbalance it worsened to 1;500 pounds in less than a couple of minutes. The Captain thought the most prudent and safest course of action would be to land short since we may have a fuel leak in the left tank. I agreed. In the 10 minutes it took to descend the fuel was now 2;000 pounds out of balance. Since an emergency was declared we decided that it would be best to land out of balance and thereby violating the AFM fuel balance limitation.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.