Scuba diving and flying. How long should you wait to fly after diving?
If you paid attention during your beginner diving course, you should know that you are not supposed to fly after diving. The big question is how long must you wait? This is a subject of great debate and really depends on what type of diving you have been doing. If you dive before you fly, you put yourself at an increased risk of decompression sickness. Residual nitrogen that is still dissolved in your body at sea level could leach out of your system upon the airplane's ascent. The more nitrogen in your body, the more likely this would happen. You must give your body time to off gas the nitrogen. The UHMS Flying After Diving Workshop has established the following guidelines for recreational divers:
1. Less than two hours no decompression diving in the last 48 hours - wait 12 hours.
2. Multi-day unlimited diving (no decompression) - wait 24 hours.
3. Dives with decompression stops - wait 24 - 48 hours.
Source: http://divesouthafrica.blogspot.com/200 ... -long.html