this from the NPS news feed about the Rainier incident
Mount Rainier National Park (WA)
Search Efforts Aided By Good Weather
A break between storms provided a weather window for significant ground and air operations in the search for two missing parties yesterday. Three aircraft conducted a major air search of the upper mountain including Ingraham, Cowlitz, and Paradise glaciers, the Muir Snowfield, and the summit. Air resources include an Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter, a contract Bell 206 helicopter with RECCO from Northwest Helicopters, and a Washington State Patrol Cessna fixed wing with forward looking infrared. Seven ground teams searched the Sluiskin Falls area, Lower Paradise Glacier, Upper Stevens Canyon above Lake Louise, and Mazama Ridge. No sign of the two parties has been found over the seven day search period. The park is beginning to scale back the operation into an extended limited continuous search. Searches of remote areas of the park will be conducted when weather conditions permit in hopes that the parties were able to walk out. Search operations will not be conducted today due to expected winter storm conditions on the mountain. Forty-six NPS, VIP and AD personnel are currently assigned to the incident. The Western Incident Management Team (Denny Ziemann IC) is managing the incident. Operations will transition back to the park tomorrow.
[Submitted by Patti Wold, IO]
the thing about Recco is that it's cheap to add to gear and it is passive. Low tech, definitely no unique code or any of the complexity of Spot and other beacons. Drawback is that I bet very few search teams have the search tool, which is most likely very expensive.