This article is about 2 activities Scuba Diving and Flying, and that they should not be mixed. What we mean to say is that at least 20 hours should be given after a scuba dive experience to fly at heights.
Let’s understand what we are trying to convey to you –
Suppose you saw a white shark near the shoreline and you can’t control yourself to deep dive into blue seas to see and view shark moments. Things are ok up to this but not if you have a flight back after 12 hours of your diving event.
Let’s understand this scientifically, typical diving involves going into deep water bodies with scuba apparatus. When you dive deep down, your breathing pressure and the adjacent sea pressure is different. This causes Nitrogen formation in your muscles. The more rapid the change in pressure, more nitrogen will come out as N2 bubble and if things are still not right, nitrogen can very well come out of solutions. Simply called bends or decompression bends, it’s a common health issue. While things are pretty safer at normal levels, but recurrent bends can be even lethal or cause Paralysis or related issues.
What happens if there are nitrogen bubble formations and you take a flight?
An airplane acts in seemingly the same way as the sea. As it lifts off and generated thrust all the way towards few thousand feet, air pressure changes and which can cause already formed N2 bubbles to come out in the solution causing problems.
And this is not fiction, many people have been recorded to show these bends symptoms (there are few documentaries as well). While the air pressure inside the cabin is maintained after some odd 7000 feet, decompression bends, therefore, can occur a lot faster during take-off. Another problem is the lack of medical help in the air. You can’t expect to get medical help until plane lands.
Does it matter that plane is of what type?
No, it does not matter and the risk is similar despite small or large cargoes.
How can I be on the safe side even after 18-20 hours after dive?
There are some points that can help you to avoid any such mishappening.
Firstly, it’s super critical to listen to yourself. If your body is not feeling right in any way, it is not right. Many people ignore their body’s situation and this only makes the whole situation worse.
Secondly, avoid drinking alcohol as it’s medically proven fact that alcohol interferes with the natural dissipation of nitrogen inn body.
Last but not the least, dive conservatively and keep your deep dives or for fun deep dives during the initial days of vacation. Only go for shallow and 1-2 minutes dives in the end to avoid nitrogen built up at toxic limits. Hope this helps you to be sensible and certainly avoid any bad happenings in the later stage. It should be a fun and learning activity for sure.