Cool thread concept, OP !!
I haven't read the entire thread, but has anyone completely lost divers in a cave system, and had to go back in and find them, while in mortal fear that you were responsible for their deaths, and were probably going to be prosecuted for murder, in a 3rd world country?
Back around '03 or so, while working in Cozumel (for the previous 10 years), I got lassoed into helping guide a too-large group of too-inexperienced divers to the mainland for some cenote/cavern dives (we had a big bitch-fight about the whole ordeal on the dive boat the day before, as there was more to the story, but it was a done deal, and i was commited........and yes, we were cave certified).
The boss's favorite system for these things was Dos Ojos, and the route we took was well outside accepted "cavern" parameters.
I was the last guy in this group, and we'd run into a complete silt-out (as I recall, it was said that some snorkelers at one of the openings had kicked up a lot of silt, and it had drifted into an area we went through).
I knew this was "not good", as I couldn't see squat but the occasional splash of color from someone's fin off the tip of my nose, and I was already pissed off and stressing pretty hard.
We finally came into clear water, and my boss materializes in front of me, frantically signalling a bunch of incomprehesible stuff, so we all surface at one of the openings.
Turns out, we're missing 4 f-ing divers !! One of the guys in the group was a divemaster from Scandinavia somewhere, and he quickly said he he'd mind the group on the surface, and for us to take off.
Me and the boss went back in, and at one point I signalled for him to stop and cover his light, as I was doing.
We then peered into the darkness, and i spotted some dim light a ways away, and pointed. He handed me the clip from his safety reel, and took off. I clipped the reel onto the nearest line, then I started towards them myself.
Turns out the 4 guys were smart enough to just STOP, and got neutrally bouyant, and joined hands, and waited, rather than going looking for the way out (which could've easily turned this into a full-blown tragedy).
While the entire episode seemed like an eternity, it couldn't have been much longer than 5 minutes, but it was hands-down the scariest, most stressful few minutes of my life.