Anyone who thinks that parts of Wales, large parts of Scotland and the Lake District are more surviveable than Alaska when one is forced to spend hours trapped in a downed aircraft during the winter months needs to have a rethink. A number of aircraft have disappeared in the Highlands.....some have been found.............in the following spring thaw............................would it not be a shame if a flight from Inverness to say Blackpool via GOW did not receive an alerting service from Glasgow when they failed to turn up at the zone boundary as expected?
And except for one case I can think of, all these missing aircraft have been raised as missing when they became overdue at the
DESTINATION airfield.
The case I am thinking of was the one that brought about the establishment of the 'responsible person' as I recall, after the aircraft crashed on Jura and lay there for a few days before it was noticed it had not returned home.
Every reference in the AIP to the responsibility for taking overdue action refers to it being the responsibility of either the destination airfield, or the parent ATSU if there is no ATC unit available there (having been notified by a responsible person of course). Absolutely no inference that it applies to en route ATC agencies in reference to solely the flight plan.