Air carrier captain reported his aircraft was improperly fueled after apparent fuel quantity gauge f...

Narrative:

Maintenance advised that the fueler had requested help with a premature fuel cutoff while attempting to add fuel to the number two tank. The tank fuel gauge read approximately 3;400 pounds. Maintenance used an alternate method to check the fuel quantity in tank 2 and concluded the tank was already full. Maintenance and the fueler provided a fuel slip indicating full wing tanks and 12;000 pounds in the center tank. The number two tank gauge was placarded inoperative using MEL 28-10B and 28-06.on liftoff it was apparent that there was a fuel imbalance requiring three units of aileron trim for wings level flight. This indicated to us that the fuel load was incorrect and insufficient for the flight. Due to the excessive roll moment of the out of balance fuel load; an emergency was declared and we returned to land at [departure airport]. The aircraft was below max landing weight.fuel measurements by alternate methods should be made with redundancy. In the future I will be personally involved in those measurements.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain reported his aircraft was improperly fueled after apparent fuel quantity gauge failure; resulting in imbalance. Crew declared an emergency and returned to departure airport.

Narrative: Maintenance advised that the fueler had requested help with a premature fuel cutoff while attempting to add fuel to the number two tank. The tank fuel gauge read approximately 3;400 LBS. Maintenance used an alternate method to check the fuel quantity in tank 2 and concluded the tank was already full. Maintenance and the fueler provided a fuel slip indicating full wing tanks and 12;000 LBS in the center tank. The number two tank gauge was placarded inoperative using MEL 28-10B and 28-06.On liftoff it was apparent that there was a fuel imbalance requiring three units of aileron trim for wings level flight. This indicated to us that the fuel load was incorrect and insufficient for the flight. Due to the excessive roll moment of the out of balance fuel load; an emergency was declared and we returned to land at [departure airport]. The aircraft was below max landing weight.Fuel measurements by alternate methods should be made with redundancy. In the future I will be personally involved in those measurements.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1123172
Time
Date	201310
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Component
Aircraft Component	Fuel Contents Indication
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Weight And Balance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural MEL Deviation - Procedural FAR Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue

Air carrier captain reported his aircraft was improperly fueled after apparent fuel quantity gauge failure; resulting in imbalance. Crew declared an emergency and returned to departure airport.