Firstly, my condolences to the families and friends of both involved.
Reading back on the previous posts I would tend to agree with 10W on the flight plan front. I'm doing a lot of flying over the Highlands at the moment and the weather can be very unpredicatable, particularly when your trying to get somewhere VFR. A diversion along the coast is usually the only sensible option, however I certainly wouldn't head off across the hills knowingly without an ELT beacon. Saying that, I don't suppose its something any of us would actually give much thought to checking when hiring an aircraft.
On that note, looking in the manual for my C172 it states that there is an ELT mounted somewhere in the tailcone which activates on impact (>5g). I haven't checked to see if it is actually there though, we have a hand held Tron ELT mounted in a convenient position in the front should it be required.
I guess its possibly just bad luck that if these poor chaps had an engine failure or some other problem they couldn't have picked a more unforgiving place to have it happen.
If that is the search definitely called off then I shall try to concentrate my hour building in that area when weather permits. At least I'd feel I was doing something useful with my time, I cant imagine how the families must feel not even knowing these poor chaps true fate.
UA