A BA46 FLC DECLARED FUEL CRITICAL STATUS AND ASKED FOR PRIORITY HANDLING WHEN THE FUEL LOW LEVEL LIGHT ILLUMINATED DURING THEIR DSCNT INTO DEN. THE FLC MISREAD FUEL GAUGES DURING PREFLT AND HAD NOT DETECTED THE LOW AMOUNT OF FUEL UNTIL ENRTE. USING NEW CALCULATIONS THEY BELIEVED THAT THEY WOULD BE ABLE TO LAND WITH 30 MINS OF FUEL REMAINING.

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THE CAPT AND MYSELF CONFIRMED 14800 LBS OF FUEL ONBOARD AT THE TIME WE WERE COMPLETING OUR PRESTART CHKLIST. ENRTE FROM SGF TO DEN; THE CAPT ALERTED ME THAT EITHER THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH OUR FUEL GAUGES OR WE WERE LOW ON FUEL. I WAS FLYING THE ACFT; SO THE CAPT COMPUTED FUEL REMAINING; TIME; AND DISTANCE TO GO. IT WAS DETERMINED WE COULD SAFELY LAND AT DEN WITH 30 MINS OF FUEL REMAINING; UPON LNDG. AFTER REVIEWING EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED WE CAME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT WE MISREAD OUR FUEL GAUGES. ALSO; THERE IS A HIGH PROBABILITY WE TOOK OFF WITH ONLY 11800 LBS OF FUEL (NEARLY 2200 LBS UNDER MINIMUM AMOUNT). IN THE FUTURE; I WILL PHYSICALLY TOUCH THE FUEL GAUGE FACE TO BE ABSOLUTELY SURE IT MATCHES OUR MINIMUM AMOUNT ON THE DISPATCH RELEASE. SUPPLEMENTAL INFO FROM ACN 335852: I RECALCULATED THE AVAILABLE DATA AND ASKED THE FO TO RECHK MY NUMBERS. AFTER DOING SO HE AGREED WITH MY DECISION THAT WE COULD SAFELY CONTINUE TO DEN. NEARING DEN THE FUEL LOW LEVEL LIGHT ILLUMINATED AT WHICH TIME I REQUESTED PRIORITY HANDLING. WE LANDED UNEVENTFULLY AND FUEL REMAINING WAS 2000 LBS.