Just curious - was the plane not equipped with an emergency beacon like a PLB or the older beacon on 121.5Mhz? If it was, does your group have an ELT for the 121.5Mhz beacon?

Our S&R group has an ELT for the 121.5MHz beacon and recently did a field test out in the wilderness area (mountainous terrain). The signal jumped all over the place and would have led us down a canyon instead of towards the correct location up the mountain.

I figure a more recent PLB (with GPS) is a much better alternative, especially since the 121.5MHz beacon won't be picked up by satellites as of Feb 2009 (I think).

Justin