Narrative:

We were waiting for our plane to arrive at the gate which was roughly 15-20 minutes late. We boarded our passengers. Closed the door and finished the pre-start and engine start to the line checklist. We pushed back and taxied to runway and performed all the other checklists. About 40-50 minutes into the flight; we noticed we were indicating roughly 1200 pounds of fuel on board. We believed either we had a fuel leak or the fuel gauges were not indicating properly. We quickly decided that we needed to make an emergency diversion and landing and figure out what the problem was once we were safely on the ground. We were right on top of ZZZ. The first officer declared an emergency and briefed the people and the flight attendant. I got a clearance direct to the airport and sent a message to dispatch. The weather in ZZZ was clear skies with unlimited visibility and winds out of the west at 20 KTS. The first officer then did a descent check. I made 1 final announcement to the passengers explaining to them that we were making a precautionary landing at ZZZ due to what we believed to be a fuel indicating problem; and that we would be on the ground within 5 minutes. We did 1 circle over the FAF of the back course approach to lose the rest of the altitude and performed a normal flaps 45 degree landing. We then taxied off the runway and parked for a few minutes; trying to arrange a gate; and find out what dispatch wanted us to do with the people. We then parked at a gate. We initially kept the people on the aircraft until we worked out the details with the agents and the local tsa. We were then instructed to secure the airplane. At the time of takeoff; both the first officer and I believed we had the appropriate amount of fuel on board. It was found later that the aircraft did not. The only thing we can do now is learn from this. The conclusion we came up with for this incident is to change the engine start checklist to the line; where it says fuel pumps; cross flow and quantity. The captain will state the amount of fuel on board and the first officer will hold up the release and verify it matches and is sufficient. That way we are not just repeating numbers we read off the fuel gauge.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ200 flight crew reports discovering at FL260 that insufficient fuel has been boarded to complete their flight. With 1200 LBS of fuel at top of descent an emergency landing is made at the nearest suitable airport.

Narrative: We were waiting for our plane to arrive at the gate which was roughly 15-20 minutes late. We boarded our passengers. Closed the door and finished the pre-start and engine start to the line checklist. We pushed back and taxied to runway and performed all the other checklists. About 40-50 minutes into the flight; we noticed we were indicating roughly 1200 LBS of fuel on board. We believed either we had a fuel leak or the fuel gauges were not indicating properly. We quickly decided that we needed to make an emergency diversion and landing and figure out what the problem was once we were safely on the ground. We were right on top of ZZZ. The First Officer declared an emergency and briefed the people and the Flight Attendant. I got a clearance direct to the airport and sent a message to Dispatch. The weather in ZZZ was clear skies with unlimited visibility and winds out of the west at 20 KTS. The First Officer then did a descent check. I made 1 final announcement to the passengers explaining to them that we were making a precautionary landing at ZZZ due to what we believed to be a fuel indicating problem; and that we would be on the ground within 5 minutes. We did 1 circle over the FAF of the Back Course approach to lose the rest of the altitude and performed a normal flaps 45 degree landing. We then taxied off the runway and parked for a few minutes; trying to arrange a gate; and find out what Dispatch wanted us to do with the people. We then parked at a gate. We initially kept the people on the aircraft until we worked out the details with the agents and the local TSA. We were then instructed to secure the airplane. At the time of takeoff; both the First Officer and I believed we had the appropriate amount of fuel on board. It was found later that the aircraft did not. The only thing we can do now is learn from this. The conclusion we came up with for this incident is to change the Engine Start checklist to the line; where it says Fuel Pumps; Cross Flow and Quantity. The Captain will state the amount of fuel on board and the First Officer will hold up the release and verify it matches and is sufficient. That way we are not just repeating numbers we read off the fuel gauge.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of May 2009 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.