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Search and Rescue (acronym SAR) is an operation mounted by emergency services, often well-trained volunteers, to find someone believed to be in distress, lost, sick or injured either in a remote or difficult to access area, such as mountains or forest, or at sea, whether close to shore or not. The term can also be applied in urban situations when young children or senile people wander away from their homes and cannot be found.
Urban Search and Rescue operations are Search and Rescue operations conducted in a city. One of the most common is searching for people buried as a result of a building collapse, as might happen after an earthquake. Sometimes, urban searches are performed for missing persons with certain criteria (example, a missing Alzheimer's patient with a history of wandering away from their home). Also, a wilderness search may transition into an urban search. This is common when lost children are involved.
The recovery of the body of a deceased person in similar situations is also considered an aspect of Search and Rescue, though the actual rescue phase of the operation is often known as recovery rather than rescue. In some situations, body recovery may fall under a separate command, such as the state medical investigator.
Search and Rescue operations have several distinct phases or parts.
In the initial phase of the operation, steps are taken to ascertain a likely location of the person being searched for, so that a search area can be established if they are in fact in need of rescue.
In the Search phase, a search is mounted by personnel on foot or using vehicles, often aided by K-9 teams, and when available, air support.
In the Rescue phase, aid is rendered to the person where they are found, sufficient to allow them to be safely transported to a place where more intensive aid can be provided. This extrication of the patient often includes some aspects of technical rescue.
Afterwards, there is often a critique phase where the operation is analysed to determine what could have been done better.
A substantial body of mathematical theory called search theory, some initially developed for anti-submarine warefare, has been developed and can be to help choose the search patterns for maritime search operations.
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