Narrative:

Approximately ten minutes prior to our push the gate agent came down to give me our final. He asked if we were ready to go; I stated that we were still waiting on fuel; that they started but stopped. He stated that he heard about the fuel spill and that was the reason. I asked him to say that again and he stated that there was a fuel spill while fueling our aircraft. I asked the first officer (first officer) to look out and see what was going on. The first officer stated that the catering truck was still in the way and that he couldn't see anything. I had asked him earlier to see if the fueler was still out there; the catering truck was blocking the view. After the gate agent told me about the spill; I immediately went out to the ramp. There was a fire truck and about ten people working in and around a large fuel spill. I asked for the ramp supervisor and any other supervisor that was present. I spoke with a ramp supervisor and a tech ops supervisor. I asked why was I the last to know about the situation. The [company] supervisors that were present stated that they had just found out about the spill just a few minutes earlier. I asked to speak to the fueler. The fueler came over and I asked him what his protocol was when there is a spill. He told me that they were to contain the spill; then contact their supervisor. I asked him if he followed that procedure. He stated that he did. I thanked him and turned around to see a constant stream of fuel pour out of the vent. Not just a little stream but a fire hose stream of fuel shooting out. I asked everyone present why I wasn't notified. I then stated that I was deplaning the aircraft. I went up to the flight deck and called operations to let them know that we were deplaning due to a fuel spill. They didn't seem surprised about the fuel spill. The aircraft was deplaned without incident. My first officer and I were sitting on the flight deck at least 45 minutes prior to push. The number two VHF was tuned to ops and the flight pin on my audio panel depressed and speaker turned up so that the ramp could contact me. I saw the start of the fueling process start and then stop. The boarding process continued with several department's full knowledge of a fuel spill at our gate. No one contacted the flight deck nor made an attempt from the ramp to get our attention. In my opinion; the boarding process wasn't stopped because there is too much emphasis on on-time departures without regard to common sense nor proactive critical thinking. This mentality has to stop; this was a major spill. Check the video from the gate. To make things worse; I spoke to the [operations] manager on site and he stated that the exact same thing happened the previous day two gates down. I contacted the [flight operations manager] to inform him of the breakdown in communication at a safety level. Had I known of the fuel spill I would have stopped the boarding process and deplaned the aircraft for obvious safety reasons. We had 185 passengers sitting there watching this fiasco unfold; right from the comfort of their seats. I'm surprised I didn't find out about the events from the passengers. There was a complete breakdown in communication and common sense/critical thinking skills.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain reported a communications breakdown between flight crew and several Operations departments following a fuel spill.

Narrative: Approximately ten minutes prior to our push the gate agent came down to give me our final. He asked if we were ready to go; I stated that we were still waiting on fuel; that they started but stopped. He stated that he heard about the fuel spill and that was the reason. I asked him to say that again and he stated that there was a fuel spill while fueling our aircraft. I asked the FO (First Officer) to look out and see what was going on. The FO stated that the catering truck was still in the way and that he couldn't see anything. I had asked him earlier to see if the fueler was still out there; the catering truck was blocking the view. After the gate agent told me about the spill; I immediately went out to the ramp. There was a fire truck and about ten people working in and around a large fuel spill. I asked for the ramp supervisor and any other supervisor that was present. I spoke with a ramp supervisor and a tech ops supervisor. I asked why was I the last to know about the situation. The [Company] supervisors that were present stated that they had just found out about the spill just a few minutes earlier. I asked to speak to the fueler. The fueler came over and I asked him what his protocol was when there is a spill. He told me that they were to contain the spill; then contact their supervisor. I asked him if he followed that procedure. He stated that he did. I thanked him and turned around to see a constant stream of fuel pour out of the vent. Not just a little stream but a fire hose stream of fuel shooting out. I asked everyone present why I wasn't notified. I then stated that I was deplaning the aircraft. I went up to the flight deck and called operations to let them know that we were deplaning due to a fuel spill. They didn't seem surprised about the fuel spill. The aircraft was deplaned without incident. My FO and I were sitting on the flight deck at least 45 minutes prior to push. The number two VHF was tuned to ops and the FLT pin on my audio panel depressed and speaker turned up so that the ramp could contact me. I saw the start of the fueling process start and then stop. The boarding process continued with several department's full knowledge of a fuel spill at our gate. No one contacted the flight deck nor made an attempt from the ramp to get our attention. In my opinion; the boarding process wasn't stopped because there is too much emphasis on on-time departures without regard to common sense nor proactive critical thinking. This mentality has to stop; this was a major spill. Check the video from the gate. To make things worse; I spoke to the [Operations] manager on site and he stated that the exact same thing happened the previous day two gates down. I contacted the [Flight Operations Manager] to inform him of the breakdown in communication at a safety level. Had I known of the fuel spill I would have stopped the boarding process and deplaned the aircraft for obvious safety reasons. We had 185 passengers sitting there watching this fiasco unfold; right from the comfort of their seats. I'm surprised I didn't find out about the events from the passengers. There was a complete breakdown in communication and common sense/critical thinking skills.

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.