PfcAJ
Contributor
I'm sure there are cases where the extra time afforded by a rebreather helped.Disclaimer: I am a CCR diver so self-justification is always suspected.
I do believe that the quote is factually correct BUT may not be the whole story. Lets take an example of another activity, mountain climbing. Lets say that there are 10 times as many fatalities among climbers using oxygen bottles as there are for those climbing without. Is that a reflection of the type of climbing that people are using O2 for, or a reflection on the dangers of the equipment?
I believe that the VAST majority of CCR dives done worldwide are technical dives, done to places where OC can't necessarily go. By the very nature of these dives, you will have many more incidents than in the big data pool of all OC dives. I firmly believe that if we could compare apples with apples (ie all dives done to 300' plus, OC vs CCR, deep cave penetrations etc) that the numbers would break down much more evenly. There may even be a slight safety increase for some types of incident ie where the extra time a CCR affords may prevent a fatality. Im sure @kensuf and @PfcAJ and @Capt Jim Wyatt etc may know of such cases.
I also strongly believe that there is a huge element of personality involved. There are people who will have no problem with CCR because they are really detail oriented and disciplined in the way they approach their diving, while others will always be at a higher risk because they are the kind of people to leave an old O2 sensor in, not restart a checklist if they were interrupted etc etc.
But I think those cases are dramatically overshadowed by the instances of people drowning on rebreathers due to problems with the rb.