Narrative:

Aircraft was parked at the gate and powered down when I arrived to prepare it for our flight. I powered up the aircraft and found that pressure refuel/defuel was deferred. I started converting pounds to gallons for the overwing fueling order. The first officer stated it looks like they are pressure refueling. I asked her to run out there and stop the fueler. She did and he came on board and said that he saw the deferred sticker but his lead had told him to ignore it and pressure refuel. I told him to stop and not use it; that I would give him the fuel order in gallons for overwing in a minute. He left the cockpit and I went back to working up the fuel load. The first officer observed that the fuel was again being pumped in using the single point. I asked her to go stop him again. She left the aircraft and from outside I heard her yell that there was a major fuel leak. I looked out; saw a growing puddle of fuel under and around the aircraft. The footprint of the spill was larger than the aircraft and growing. The first officer then yelled that there was no fueler anywhere around the aircraft and it was still pumping fuel into aircraft and on the ground. She took it upon herself to shut down the fuel panel and stop the fuel from pumping on the ground. She should be commended for her quick action in stopping the fueling -- without her; the spill would have been much larger. While the first officer was stopping the fuel; I called operations; advised them of the spill and shut down the aircraft's APU. The spill was contained; the aircraft moved; and inspected by maintenance. While maintenance was inspecting the aircraft; the first officer stated she was feeling sick and reported that she had breathed in a lot of fumes when she stopped the spill. She also looked flush and her eyes were dilated. I called operations and had the paramedics check her condition. She removed herself from the trip as a safety precaution and the on-call chief pilot was notified. Scheduling was notified and a replacement first officer was found. The aircraft was now ready for flight but was over fueled and having no way to defuel because of the deferred refuel/defuel system; I had to leave 6 passengers at the gate. I am submitting this report because over the last 3 or 4 months the use of the single point refueling when it was deferred has occurred at least 3 times in ZZZ. Each time I made a maintenance write-up and had the aircraft inspected. I believe it is caused by a lack of training and laziness. It is more work for the fuelers to overwing the fuel so their lead tells them to try it regardless of the deferred status.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ200 Captain reports fuel spill after fueler attempts to pressure refuel aircraft that has this system on MEL.

Narrative: Aircraft was parked at the gate and powered down when I arrived to prepare it for our flight. I powered up the aircraft and found that pressure refuel/defuel was deferred. I started converting LBS to gallons for the overwing fueling order. The First Officer stated it looks like they are pressure refueling. I asked her to run out there and stop the fueler. She did and he came on board and said that he saw the deferred sticker but his Lead had told him to ignore it and pressure refuel. I told him to stop and not use it; that I would give him the fuel order in gallons for overwing in a minute. He left the cockpit and I went back to working up the fuel load. The First Officer observed that the fuel was again being pumped in using the single point. I asked her to go stop him again. She left the aircraft and from outside I heard her yell that there was a major fuel leak. I looked out; saw a growing puddle of fuel under and around the aircraft. The footprint of the spill was larger than the aircraft and growing. The First Officer then yelled that there was no fueler anywhere around the aircraft and it was still pumping fuel into aircraft and on the ground. She took it upon herself to shut down the fuel panel and stop the fuel from pumping on the ground. She should be commended for her quick action in stopping the fueling -- without her; the spill would have been much larger. While the First Officer was stopping the fuel; I called Operations; advised them of the spill and shut down the aircraft's APU. The spill was contained; the aircraft moved; and inspected by Maintenance. While Maintenance was inspecting the aircraft; the First Officer stated she was feeling sick and reported that she had breathed in a lot of fumes when she stopped the spill. She also looked flush and her eyes were dilated. I called Operations and had the paramedics check her condition. She removed herself from the trip as a safety precaution and the on-call Chief Pilot was notified. Scheduling was notified and a replacement First Officer was found. The aircraft was now ready for flight but was over fueled and having no way to defuel because of the deferred refuel/defuel system; I had to leave 6 passengers at the gate. I am submitting this report because over the last 3 or 4 months the use of the single point refueling when it was deferred has occurred at least 3 times in ZZZ. Each time I made a maintenance write-up and had the aircraft inspected. I believe it is caused by a lack of training and laziness. It is more work for the fuelers to overwing the fuel so their Lead tells them to try it regardless of the deferred status.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.