Sometime back in the mid90's I got a call from a buddy that had gotten his truck stuck in a snowdrift after a blizzard came through and he said his phone was about dead. He was able to describe his general location (miles from nowhere) before the phone died. It was dark out when I headed out and as I got within a few miles, he saw my truck lights and pointed a red laser my direction. From what i remember it was just a simple laser sight he had on his .22 rifle and I had no problems locating him this way. It was easily seen even when not pointed directly at me. This laser pointer being that old, maybe someone has manufactured a spotting laser specifically for this purpose? I will have to research that.
Also I have direct experience as to what happens when you point a laser at an aircraft. If the pilot sees this,and he most likely will especially at night, he will alert the airtraffic controller, atc will then get the best gps location he can from the pilot and alert a supervisor, the supervisor will notify the authorities and the investigation begins immediately in hopes to locate the source.
Im not going to say whether I believe this would be a good method to get located in an emergency situation, but I will say as far as I know no aircraft has ever crashed due to a laser being pointed it unless a missle was coming next.
