Sas,
I understand what you are saying but I think you are straying off the topic. I suspect the factors you cited were not involved in the incident commanders decision to decline the initial offer of air support by a private operator. I suspect a supervisor concerned may have made the decision, rightly or wrongly with liability. said supervisor has to act in a manner consistent with the expectations of his agency, not how they do things in another state.
Good Samaritan statues do not exempt an agency from liability. For the sake of discussion, the incident commander gives the aircrew permission to assist, they fly into this extremely dark area & the ship goes down. It is very likely there will be litigation & some liability on the part of the public agency. Most public agencies are self-insured so any judgment comes out of the general fund for that city or county.
On the other hand, the agency declines the offer of assistance. There is some sort of accident involving the company & aircraft that was denied permission to assist. Liability to the public agency is minimal if any. I don’t know that was that case but to me that seems like a more plausible that some of the other explanations about being embarrassed, saving face ect.
There was also a comment about a public agency being sued for not doing enough to locate the kids. Under existing case law the chances of winning a judgment are non-existent. This may sound harsh but existing case law says law enforcement has no duty to protect an individual. (1984); Davidson v. City of Westminster, 32 C.3d 197.
Think about it, if there was such a duty, victims could sue every time they were victimized. That is not the case. As bad as it sounds, if law enforcement had of packed it up for the night & went home, there would have been no liability on their part. I know that sounds terrible but that is the law. The reality is no public agency is going to do such a thing, I hope.
Re Good Samaritan Laws, there is no protection from gross negligence.
http://www.swc.cc.ca.us/~kjacobs/goodsam.htm
Just my thought on why the offer of assistance was declined. Again, I commend the aircrew for doing the right thing.