Plane Facts: Search And Rescue (SAR)

Facts and tidbits about aviation search and rescue.

Desiree Kocis

Wednesday, October 30, 2019 at 01:46 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is responsible for 90% of inland U.S. search and rescue (SAR) missions, with Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs) being crucial for significantly reducing rescue times.
Newer 406 MHz ELTs and Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) are highly effective, offering superior location precision (330 ft.) and higher activation rates (73-83%) compared to older models, reducing average rescue times from over 40 hours to under 7 hours.
The U.S. National Park Service conducts thousands of SAR operations annually, primarily for hikers, and is incorporating modern tools like drones to enhance search efficiency.
SAR efforts vary from numerous local rescues, often aided by technology, to massive, complex international searches like Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which can involve extensive resources but still result in no finds.

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U.S. Coast Guard Eurocopter HH-65 Dolphin. Photo by Skeeze/Pixabay

Largest fleet of single-engine aircraft in U.S.: Civil Air Patrol (CAP)
Fleet: 560
Primary aircraft: Cessna 172s & 182s
Date chartered: December 1, 1941
Members: 61,066

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Inland SAR missions performed by CAP: 90%
Successful rescues last year: 158
Over water missions carried out by: U.S. Coast Guard
Emergency locator transmitter (ELT) activations: 8,898
Actual distress cases: 112
False-alarm rate: 98%
Main cause of false alerts: Mishandling during testing and maintenance
Activation rate in actual crashes, 121.5 MHz models: 12-25%
Rate with newer 406 MHz models: 73-83%
Location precision of 121.5 MHz vs. 406 MHz ELTs: 12 mi. vs. 330 ft.

Average rescue time for aircraft with functioning ELT: 6.8 hrs.
Without ELT: 40.7 hrs.
Without ELT and no filed flight plan: 42 hrs. 24 min.
Location precision for personal locator beacons (PLBs): ~300 ft.
Frequency: 406 MHz
Temperature range for operation: -40Â°F to 131Â°F
ELT & PLB signal transmission length: At least 24 hrs.

U.S. National Park Service SAR incidents in 2018: 3,453

Successful rescues: 1,008
Primary aircraft: Cessna 206, Bell 206 B3
Cost of last year’s air ops: $920,246
Average SAR flight hours logged/year: 1,600
Activity requiring most rescues: Hiking
Most common age of victims: 20-29 yrs.
Second most common: >60 yrs.
Celebrity known for park service SAR missions: Harrison Ford
Aircraft: Bell 407 helicopter
Successful rescues: 2; missing Boy Scout & distressed hiker
Awkward moment for rescued hiker: Vomiting in Harrison’s hat

Newest aircraft used by Park Service: Drones
Worldwide rescues by drone to date: At least 133
Time advantage of victims found via drone vs on foot: 3.18 minutes
Average cost of SAR drone: $25,000-$35,000

Largest SAR mission in history: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappearance
Search area: 1,800,000 sq. mi.
Countries that deployed aircraft for initial search: 14
Aircraft deployed: 58
Days spent searching: 1,046
Crash sites found: 0
Historic shipwrecks found: 2