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It was a long time ago when I read this. But I think there was no guideline. One of those ‘clear water, I can see light from the here, I’m good, what could go wrong?’ I forget how it got silted out, but it turned out that the black ash from the fire exploded when disturbed to cover the entire compartment and then settled really slowly. And the space that seemed perfectly inviting and safe was pretty much impossible to navigate blind.
No it isn't. Equipment failure is more likely. A dive is only as safe as the bailout you may have to use.
You don't have to be a genius or experienced to know the deeper and more complex a dive is the more the risk, a rebreather is more complex and less forgiving than OC. It's frankly ridiculous to argue that a rebreather is safer than OC. The question that should really be asked is not how many have died on rebreathers but how many have been saved by bailing out onto OC.
A 150m/500ft dive is possible on open circuit. You’d be extremely constrained on bottom time and have very little scope for change. You’d have exceptionally heavy equipment with massive backgas and 4 or more decompression stages. You’d need support divers and protocols.
It's not. And the proof of that is very experienced diver's have lost their lives after moving from OC to rebreather. Its a more complex and riskier system. And there,s actually a good argument for divers to go straight to rebreather and completely skip OC. 20 or 30 years of diving OC is going to do nothing for you when there's a problem on a rebreather. The habits of OC are not good on a rebreather.
