Who said anything about solo students? If anything, I would guess that this is unlikely to have been a solo student.... I would like to think any instructor would ensure that his students are sufficiently well prepared before a solo flight for such a situation to be very unlikely to arise?
Point taken FFF. I have no evidence that students get lost while solo. It just seems like an obvious protective step, and it's students whom we tend to protect most carefully.
I presumed that the view that
all aircraft should be equipped with a Mode A/C transponder would be even less popular...
