Flying after diving and experiencing rapid plane decompression

[Hoag]

I originally thought this thread was started because of SWA1380...

One of the hardest skills to master as a controller was how to speak when dealing with an in flight emergency (IFE). Ideally, you want to have the tone of your voice give the pilot the feeling that you were dealing with their IFE with an unmistakable sense of urgency while still being calm and reassuring to the pilot. No matter what happens, you absolutely can not let the pilot sense panic or even worse uncertainty in your voice.

The pilot, the copilot and the controllers all did an outstanding job.

(The 1st IFE that I had to deal with after I finished training was 23 USN aircraft who could not land back on their carrier because the deck was "fouled" and now they were over water, critically low on fuel and looking for vectors to the nearest land based airport. All 23 aircraft landed safely, but it was a wild half hour till the last one touched down.)

 

[Centrals]

If it should happen, the O2 mask is your friend, but a lot of people don't appear to pay attention to the flight attendants' safety briefing, so the unknown factor is how fast, or if, the passengers will actually don the O2 mask.

They thought they had flew many times and knew the "correct" procedure ie. covering both noise and mouth. But in reality they don't.

 

[rossh]

As a diver, you need to wait for your residual nitrogen level to return close to normal, before you can fly. This gets you back to the same baseline as all the other passengers, and if a cabin decompression happens, you will be at the same risk level as all others during such an emergency event. For a single dive, this takes about 12 hours of surface time to get the nitrogen level back to normal.. As you add more repeat dives, that time grows to about 18 hours, and levels off from there with typical dive patterns.

So the example question has you at the same risk level as all other passengers. Of course, YMMV so it best to follow the surface time advice of the training agencies and DAN.

 

[BertStevens]

I still follow the old 24 hour no fly rule. Combining a week of advanced dives and my 51 years of age, caution seems to be in order. I also dive nitrox for the same reason.

Everything in life has risk. How we manage that risk is the key. Don’t forget, Navy tables are based on healthy, extremely fit young men. So padding caution into my diving seems wise. YMMV.

 

[Jay]

I still follow the old 24 hour no fly rule. Combining a week of advanced dives and my 51 years of age, caution seems to be in order. I also dive nitrox for the same reason.

Everything in life has risk. How we manage that risk is the key. Don’t forget, Navy tables are based on healthy, extremely fit young men. So padding caution into my diving seems wise. YMMV.

For sure, and after the DAN study: DAN Flying and Diving Study published

 

[tomfcrist]

Rapid cabin depressurization at altitude can easily cause DCS regardless of your dive history. Think it doesn’t happen? Ask an FA-18C pilot that has been actively flying in the last 2-5 years. Top that off with an OBOGS malfunction...you are assuredly going to need a chamber.