Narrative:

Climbing through approximately 3;000 feet; we noticed the yellow fuel imbal indication followed by the realization that the right main tank was indicating an abnormally high 100 pounds/sec fuel loss. We requested an early level off at 10;000 feet to ascertain the situation. At level off we noticed the fuel quantity indication somewhat stabilized but still occasionally fluctuated by approximately +/-200 pounds quantity. I had decided at that point that whether it was a fuel leak; bad fuel gauge or faulty fuel probe or anything else; it would be unwise to continue and we contacted dispatch and maintenance control and all of us concurred that diverting and performing a precautionary landing would be the best course of action. Because we were 15 minutes from [a suitable airport] and we had plenty of fuel; I elected not to perform the engine fuel leak checklist. No initial evidence of a fuel leak were found by maintenance personnel on the ground. We accomplished a successful overweight landing and had an uneventful completion of the flight. There were no abnormal flight control inputs required for proper aircraft control.system malfunction but unknown at this time the exact cause. Was very task saturated in dealing with the logistics of diverting the aircraft; contacting dispatch and maintenance; operations; keeping flight attendants and passengers informed; all within a very short period of time.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-800 Captain reported diverting to a nearby alternate after noting a possible fuel leak while on climbout.

Narrative: Climbing through approximately 3;000 feet; we noticed the yellow Fuel Imbal indication followed by the realization that the right main tank was indicating an abnormally high 100 LBS/sec fuel loss. We requested an early level off at 10;000 feet to ascertain the situation. At level off we noticed the fuel quantity indication somewhat stabilized but still occasionally fluctuated by approximately +/-200 LBS quantity. I had decided at that point that whether it was a fuel leak; bad fuel gauge or faulty fuel probe or anything else; it would be unwise to continue and we contacted dispatch and maintenance control and all of us concurred that diverting and performing a precautionary landing would be the best course of action. Because we were 15 minutes from [a suitable airport] and we had plenty of fuel; I elected not to perform the engine fuel leak checklist. No initial evidence of a fuel leak were found by maintenance personnel on the ground. We accomplished a successful overweight landing and had an uneventful completion of the flight. There were no abnormal flight control inputs required for proper aircraft control.System malfunction but unknown at this time the exact cause. Was very task saturated in dealing with the logistics of diverting the aircraft; contacting dispatch and maintenance; operations; keeping flight attendants and passengers informed; all within a very short period of time.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.