No easy answers, indeed. Imagine what SAR staff have been asking themselves. In an imperfect world, you make the best call you can with the best information at hand.

I imagine that protocols are in place in these situations, helping SAR personnel make the tough decisions in the heat of the moment.

I find myself coming back to the cell phone, though. These pre-smart-phone growlers run a long, long time, especially if data services are turned off. Lack of contact with a tower makes them transmit at max power, it's true, but they are still pinging like mad. In a major metro centre, that's just noise. In a wilderness search, that's a beacon. No triangulation from towers, and privacy laws are a major factor, but this lady's transmissions were not invisible. I wonder what could be done in the "hasty search" phase?