Fit to fly ?

[MEL_Traveller]

Excuse my ignorance but having never been scuba diving , what affects could you suffer flying to soon after diving.Only asking because i don't know.

courtesy of wikitravel:

[h=3]Flying after diving[/h]While the cabin pressure in an aircraft is at a level which makes it comfortable to breathe, it is still significantly lower than the air pressure at sea level. As such, most agencies recommend that you do not fly for 24 hours after completing your last dive to avoid decompression sickness. Always factor this extra day in when planning a dive trip.

 

[koonyaflyer]

quite serious. but better than China where all flights were met with officials in full white protective suits with hand held temperature 'guns' that they'd point at each passenger and make sure the plane was clear before allowing passengers to disembark. Would add a good 15 mins to the arrival time. Heaven help you if a passenger was found to have a temperature - the whole plane could be quarantined (and some were with passengers having to spend 48 hours in a chap and nasty hotel under complete lock-down)

Was on one of those flights into China. I missed, by one row, spending a week in quarantine! The shuffled about 10 people off to very average Chinese hotels!

 

[midcoast1]

courtesy of wikitravel:

Thanks for that

 

[bigjobs]

I was sitting in the 2nd emergency row (13 or whatever) on a 738 PER-BNE red eye a coule years ago. The stewardess comes along, gives us the briefing and then asks for a verbal confirmation from each of us.

The bloke in front of me, when asked, says "oh, I dunno, I'm pretty pissed eh" ... Lols were had by the rest of us and some other lucky punter got his emergency row seat and old mate moved to a standard row.

The CSM came and grilled him before they moved him, saying they were 'concerned about his ability to help in an emergency'

 

[flyingfan]

Could have been worse, at least he was sensible enough to admit he wasn't in a fit state. You don't want someone in that state in that seat the one time an evacuation really is ordered...

When I'm near exit seats the FAs are pretty polite and firm, and sometimes just firm, about getting the instructions across - suppose the part about being assertive when it comes to safety issues comes into play.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I was sitting in the 2nd emergency row (13 or whatever) on a 738 PER-BNE red eye a coule years ago. The stewardess comes along, gives us the briefing and then asks for a verbal confirmation from each of us.

The bloke in front of me, when asked, says "oh, I dunno, I'm pretty pissed eh" ... Lols were had by the rest of us and some other lucky punter got his emergency row seat and old mate moved to a standard row.

The CSM came and grilled him before they moved him, saying they were 'concerned about his ability to help in an emergency'

Two things in my book that are a red flag are conversations that start with either "I've just come in from the mines" or "I've just been offshore for 3 weeks".

 

[yohy?!]

Temperature checking has been permanently in place in HKG since SARS outbreak - they take possible influenza outbreaks very seriously here due to the proximity to China (where hygiene and health standards are lax), recently a bird flu scare caused a cull of 10,000 chickens from China in a transit point near my home.

 

[simongr]

Excuse my ignorance but having never been scuba diving , what affects could you suffer flying to soon after diving.Only asking because i don't know.

It is really enshrined in the diver's psyche to leave 24 hours between dives and flights.

In reality though it is more about the mix of dives - for example the risk is lower if you only did shallower dives due to the lower difference in relative pressures. If you are ever at a dive resort you will most likely see people staring at their dive computers (generally they look like big fat rubberised watches) as the computer counts down the no fly time based on the actual pressures experienced. After a relatively shallow dive (15M) for a short time (45 mins) my dive computer has shown no fly times as low as 8 hours shortly after the end of the dive.

It is better to be safer though. I recently dived in Jeddah at about 2PM and had a 12:30PM flight home the next day and was slightly nervous...

I have never filled out a declaration to airline about my diving though...

 

[AVC]

Excuse my ignorance but having never been scuba diving , what affects could you suffer flying to soon after diving.Only asking because i don't know.

When you dive, nitrogen is absorbed into the bloodstream. If you surface too quickly this nitrogen turns to bubbles, which is bad. Painful at best, but at worst can cause a CVA (stroke).
While you can still be OK on the surface, flying can cause the same effect.
Simon has explained the rest..

 

[midcoast1]

When you dive, nitrogen is absorbed into the bloodstream. If you surface too quickly this nitrogen turns to bubbles, which is bad. Painful at best, but at worst can cause a CVA (stroke).
While you can still be OK on the surface, flying can cause the same effect.
Simon has explained the rest..

Thanks all the info on the diving before flying everyone.I knew nothing about it.

 

[drmikki]

As the others have posted above:

After any scuba diving, you run the risk of decompression sickness (also known as 'the bends') when going from areas of high pressure (underwater) to areas of normal pressure (sea level) causes dissolved gases in the blood to form into tiny bubbles. If you go from diving to somewhere low pressure at altitude, such as an aeroplane it increases the risk, or makes existing decompression sickness worse. By the same token, you shouldn't go mountain climbing after diving, and if you get decompression sickness you need to be transferred by a pressurised aircraft (ideally pressurised to sea level), or flying at low altitude.

Frankly, if you are scuba diving and mountaineering in the same week you need to find a more sedate holiday :mrgreen: Get a coughtail and lie by the pool like a normal person!