All the pony haters here. Regardless of who forgot to do what, who didn't do it right, or whose fault it is, I can guarantee you one thing.
A diver with no pony and an empty cylinder has a lower chance of survival than a diver with a 19 Cu Ft pony and an empty cylinder.
Most of you pulling all these ridiculous scenarios out your butts to try to hate on ponies.
My pony (I've done drills) gives me about 10 minutes of air if I have to ascend from 110 feet in an out-of-air scenario. That's 10 more minutes of air than you have. And it isn't always "idiot diver who didn't watch his gauge" causation. In one situation, my buddy inadvertently banged his (yoke) reg on the wreck in a penetration and the O-ring blew. He was out of gas in a few minutes. My situation several years ago, the O-ring on the 2nd stage swivel blew. On disassembly afterwards, I realized the allen bolt that joins the two sections of the swivel had became loose (vibration?) allowing the O-ring to extrude. After that I began carrying a small allen wrench in my toolgear to check it was tight before a dive. Another situation a chick who was my insta-buddy blew an O-ring (yoke reg) at 75 feet. Her gas supply was gone in a few minutes. If she had had that pony y'all dis so much, she'd had 10 minutes more of air and wouldn't have had to buddy breath under stress during an emergency ascent. She couldn't surfaced quickly and less stressful and more safely.
Using a pony bottle as a "dive extender" is wrong application of the tool. But it isn't the fault of the tool that the diver is using it for a purpose it wasn't intended for. My policy is if I have to switch to pony reg, the next step is "Go home now", not spear one more fish or take one more photo.
