No need for the world to sit around waiting for me. The Army has developed this cool little RQ-11 drone that looks quite good for searching remote areas. It is hand launched ... You just start it and throw it by hand. Brilliant!

http://www.avinc.com/uas/small_uas/raven/

The only drawback is that I don't know what these things cost. But SAR teams could get one of these pretty quickly if their budgets allowed for it. As an added tool it would be very useful.

Hikermor: very good point about including two-way comms in a package dropped to the ground. Also, it's a good thought that the victim could be in bad shape and might not be able to do very much.

One possible solution to this is to use a two-drone rescue system. The initial drone is just a small aircraft with a camera. The follow-up drone is launched after the victim is found. The second drone is a heavier "cargo drone" that drops a 10-15 pound package. This is efficient because the cargo drone does not have to fly a long search route ... The target of the drop is already located.

Pete