[MovedGoalPosts]

The only dive site I can think of around Marsa Alam area that people do push the limits on is Elphinstone, a reef accessible from shore by RIB or day boat. Many go deep to see if there are sharks down there.

As a recreational diver, not a technical diver, he may only have had a 12litre cylinder of air. The speed at which that would be drained at that depth is amazing. Tech divers would have two cylinders, and perhaps other redundancy. He would have been close to the limits that air can be breathed as the pressure of oxygen will become toxic. This is regardless of the narcosis effect (nitrogen can make you feel like you are drunk). I know that some diving systems, BSAC in particular did allow 50m dives on air, but that was has largely been superceded with better dive kit and special gas mixes such as Trimix. Realistically anyone diving to that depth would have been expecting to do decompression stops, and that is beyond the training of an AOW qualified diver. With the limited amount of gas he would have had available, a conservative dive profile, including various stops on the ascent, would have been unlikely.

Another point to consider is that dives to that depth are less proven for many models used by some recreational dive computers (a depth guage / timer that works out how long you can stay at depths to minimise risks of DCI - note the word minimise since you can never totally rule it out unless you do not dive).

It is worth noting that on every trip I have been on diving in the Red Sea, the dive guides have emphasised the 30m limit. Yes it is regularly broken, but not to such excess as this.