paulr: I respectfully disagree.

1. Search and Rescue planes overflew the crash site at least twice without spotting the wreckage. They had no way of knowing whether the pilot and passengers were still alive; they just kept searching until they had exhausted any reasonable hope of finding anyone alive. Had the ELT been functioning, or had one of the passengers set off a PLB, the search would have concluded days earlier, with the obvious result being far less risk to the searchers.

2. I could be injured, trapped, or unconscious. In such a case, having my PLB sending out a distress signal to expedite rescue would be a high priority.

3. As trite as it sounds, knowing that a loved one is dead is, for most people, preferable to knowing that they're *probably* dead.

4. Who in their right mind is ever going to activate a signal that says "Don't bother looking for me"? (Fwiw, the recommended procedure if you make an emergency off-airport landing and don't need immediate medical help, but have no way of contacting anyone to tell them you're okay, is to wait until the SAR time on your flight plan (normally about 1 hour after your ETA) and then manually activate your ELT. This saves batteries and will shorten the time spent on Search and Rescue as much as is feasible.)

5. What SAR team will risk the bad publicity and potential lawsuits if they detect a beacon from a downed plane and DON'T go in to investigate? No SAR professional is ever going to assume that there are no survivors, regardless of the kind of beacon, unless he/she sees for him/herself.

6. Imagine the potential litigation if someone pressed the wrong button and sent out the "don't bother looking for me" signal instead of the "my passenger is slowly bleeding to death from a severed artery" one? <img src="images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />