Yup, I agree, civvies tend to use SSR-only to declutter their picture.
I would hope the civil commercial aviation world takes a long hard look at itself after this. I would hope they ask the following:
1. Why is there an over reliance on SSR and not primary RADAR?
2. Why isn't there a procedure for contacting the aircraft when they don't check in on frequency?
3. When there is no contact then why didn't the air traffic service start to look with primary? The average airliner does around 8 miles a minute - so no contact after 5 minutes then start looking out by 50 miles!
4. Is it ETOPS safe or should we have more crew and engines on a single aircraft?
5. Is the use of an aircraft slide really sufficient as a life-raft following ditching?
LJ