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Anyone who knows Esat Attikan knows that he is one extremely bright
individual, and a high-powered scientist. Esat always argues with my
propensity to name a conclusion based on limited facts, like my not
smoking because the Surgeon General said cigarettes cause cancer, well
before the actual link was found. Deep air is the same.

  In the case of cave diving, anything which contributes in any small
way to confusion is a potential death sentence, as one seemingly minor
problem escalates into a full blown disaster. This is why we have so
many deaths in the 140 plus range ( there really are not too many
100-130 dives, most are less or more) - one thing leads to another.

   This is not as apparent in open water diving, as "up" is "out", and
certainly not as apparent in clear water or warm water diving. Anything
that adds any degree of sensory deprivation or concentration, like cold,
dark , murkey, etc, heightens the risk, and anything that would present
a problem , like being caught in wire on a wreck, or silted out, is a
death sentence at even seemingly shallow narcosis depths - just look at
the track record of accidents in the range betwen 120-160, not to
mention the obvoiusly deeper ones, like the Rouse horror story.

   While the explainers say the causes of death were such things as
"entrapment", "diver error", or other such excuses, the fact is that
these are much more likely and harder to solve impaired than they would
be clear ( shallow or with the right gas).

   Real pros and real tech divers do not dive deep on air, and they
never do it in a cave . The reason I told Esat to "tell us" the story
after his first cave dive is that if Esat did cave dive, he would be
saying what I am saying anectdotally, with only the obvious
circustantial evidence to support his conslusions .

   Otherwise, for a bright guy like this to engage in dangerous
practices can only be attibuted to a lack of information, not farm
animal stupidity, but it is interesting that a guy like this could have
taken his cue from somebody dumber than than lab animals he studies
disease in.
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