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

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Key Takeaways:

The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is the primary provider of inland search and rescue (SAR) missions in the U.S., achieving 158 successful rescues last year with its fleet of 560 single-engine aircraft.
Effective Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs), especially newer 406 MHz models, are critical for timely rescues, offering high activation rates (73-83%) and precise location data (330 ft), which drastically reduces average rescue times from over 40 hours to 6.8 hours.
Search and rescue operations by agencies like the U.S. National Park Service are extensive, handling thousands of incidents annually and increasingly employing advanced technologies such as drones to improve the speed and efficiency of locating victims.

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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