Let's hope it never comes to a situation where any of this is required.
As always, I fully appreciate that any sort of rescue is a luxury provided by honourable people.
My concern as always is that someone gets injured and protocol stands in the way of an otherwise doable rescue.
This has happened up and down the country.
It's similar to surfing a gnarly reef break in a chunky swell and expecting the lifeguards to risk themselves if you come a cropper. When blanket things like "We don't attempt rescues in onshore winds, or at high tide" come into play, perhaps the situation is compromised.
I suppose when you start thinking about all the "duty of care" crap for professionals, it removes a load of the "sod it, we'll go in anyway" which is perhaps needed to affect a proper rescue.
When we were in WB the second time, the air was probably thin enough to merit the hysteria to get everyone needing BA (according to protocol) and we were probably far enough away and through alkward enough gaps that it would have been a multi cylinder job, by that time whatever was going on at the far end could have resulted in the situation deteriorating.
(NB:- The air was fine in there from a human biology point of view and was not borderline and would have been "gone in" and considered fine by any experienced cavers)
This assumes that there would have been no pissing around at the top of the shaft with all the other risk assessment/rigging nonsense ensuring all duties of care are met and all the boxes are ticked.
This may seem like a personal dig, but it isn't. I have the utmost respect for all and any involved in rescue. However, I do think that HSE box ticking gets in the way sometimes and this has been proven by people snuffing it up country.
I bloody well hope it doesn't happen here.
I suppose "caving" properly should ensure the minimal probability of an accident.
Anyway, probably better to stop this tangent from the thread!