First, condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.
I believe that sober, thoughtful discussion of the applicable facts of a tragedy such as this one may result in learning that may result in the avoidance of future occurances of incidents of this nature. I believe that this has been the case thus far in this forum.
This account states that a Civil Air Patrol aircraft determined that the PLB originated in the area of Star Lake.
For several years in the '80s, I served as a Civil Air Patrol volunteer, and flew a fair number of missions as pilot or observer. The idea of Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary to the regular Air Force is that it is often more cost-effective to use light aircraft flying at relatively low speeds, operated by volunteer pilots familiar with the area than to use high speed jet aircraft which are very expensive to operate. While this experience is dated, perhaps there is some information that some will find useful.
When I was active, a satellite report from a single pass of the satellite would result in two locations, one on either side of the satellite path and perpendicular to it. In many cases, one of these locations would be in the Atlantic Ocean, and could often be eliminated based on other factors. Multiple satellite passes might further pinpoint the target area, but it might take several hours for this to occur. But this is what was used as a starting point for search by aircraft.
The aircraft direction finding equipment at the time consisted of a receiver that allowed listening to the transmission, and a display that indicted if the source was to the left-center-right of the aircraft. Typically, once you heard the signal, you would turn the aircraft to “center” this display, which would place the source directly ahead or behind the aircraft. If the signal became louder, you knew you were flying toward the source, if it got fainter, you knew the source was behind, and you turned the aircraft around and re-centered the signal. You flew straight ahead until the signal peaked, plotting the course. You then repeated the process from a different direction, and informed the ground searchers where the plots intersected. Altitude would often help, both to keep you out of ground turbulence, and to avoid having a signal in a valley blocked off by a ridge.
Handheld direction finding gear consisted of a somewhat cumbersome antenna that was held in a particular orientation, and a receiver with a similar left-center-right display. I have a great deal of respect for the aircrew bouncing around in a light aircraft in windy conditions above that terrain, as well as for the ground team operating hand-held direction finding equipment in the conditions that prevailed.
I do not recall being called out for a search of anything other than an aircraft beacon; personal transmitters were very uncommon at that time. Most of my flying was south of the Lakes region, I rarely ventured north of Laconia, as I was based in Nashua, and there were pilots from Laconia and Berlin much more familiar with flying in the northern tier of the state.
A target as large as an intact aircraft could be located within a few hours, and I did this several times, from the air, on the ground, at night and in daylight hours. A single person who was not active in signaling a searching aircraft can be virtually impossible to see from the air. On occasion for practice, I would hike into the woods with a practice transmitter for others to try to find, and unless I was actively trying to be seen, it would be rare to be spotted from the aircraft, even once the transmitter position was determined. A signal mirror, properly used (and assuming availability of the sun), was very effective in assisting the search aircraft in spotting someone on the ground.
I was very fortunate in that none of my "finds" were an actual person in distress, in each case it was a beacon that had been inadvertantly activated. In each case when I went to a person to ask them to check thier transmitter, I was glad that I was asking an unhurt person to do so. Much prefer finding 10 non-distress beacons than anyone actually hurt.
During the time I was an active pilot, when I hiked solo in the Whites, I would generally take with me an aircraft band transceiver, for emergency use. Never had to use it, thankfully, but pre-cellphone, I felt if I were injured, I could transmit on 121.5 (the emergency frequency) and get a message about my location and emergency to the appropriate authorities. Would probably still work better than a cellphone in some areas. Of course, you would need to be conscious.
A PLB is certainly better than nothing, but it will be several hours for 1) the signal to be heard (probably by a satellite), 2) the approximate location ascertained 3) a search crew assembled and dispatched 4) the search crew actually getting to you.
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