A couple of stories have gotten to me that highlights the situation as it exists now in the GOM.
The first one was a Jetranger that went down just before dark in moderately rough seas. No airborner SAR around....but a non-SAR civilian helicopter was able to find the survivors who were in the water. The aircraft remained in a hover overhead as a workboat arrived....and remained overhead to assist when the workboat crew could not see the survivors lifejacket lights from as close as ten feet due to the spray and sea state.
That suggests the use of standard life jacket lights is inadequate....why not use military style strobe lights and use reflective tape on the jackets.
The other was a crash of a Jetranger very close to the shore but in 40 knot winds. It occurred due to an engine failure very shortly after takeoff and just after the aircraft turned downwind. The pilot was unable to get turned into wind and thus the aircraft landed hard, removing the floats in the process. Everyone got out but the front seat passenger and the pilot were unable to get to the raft. The rear seat passengers got into the raft. Within just a few minutes two aircraft were overhead....neither were SAR aircraft. One dropped a liferaft to see it blow away downwind from the two swimmers....the second aircraft had an oil company employee aboard who jumped into the sea with a liferaft. (Hats Off! to him!). The pilot in the water was seen trying to make it to that raft but died due to a heart attack.
Again...no SAR....and this time...no workboat.
Now lets consider the fact.....with the companies operating on private radio frequencies....you could be in the area thus able to help in a search effort but you would know nothing about it in all likelihood.
It seems to me....there is some improvement needed to that situation down there...and some of them can be done at very little costs to anyone.
Let me guess....do the Jetrangers and other single engine aircraft have but one VHF radio as well....thus the need to stay on the company radio for flight following reasons?
I also heard that only a few aircraft have automatic location tracking equipment....customer demand drives that and must be paid for by the customer before it gets installed? I would imagine that would be a great sales pitch that would make one operator much more attractive than another if it were to be installed fleet-wide.