Analysis of the risk of diving accidents in military and recreational diving

The most common question that arose in the course of the analysis of the data concerned with the number of diving accidents in recreational diving as compared with the authors’ own experiences working with military divers was why the number of accidents in recreational diving is substantially higher than that obtained in military diving. The comparison of factors having a direct effect on diving safety, the scope of depths reached, the manner of conducting decompression and divers’ problems reported after diving completion allow to explain the reasons behind the common incidents occurring among recreational divers. The factors which had a very significant impact on safety level included diving frequency, adaptation to higher pressure conditions and overestimation of one’s skills in undertaking challenges.