A beacon could be dropped by the rescurer to signal that ther's alredy an operation in progress. When done, he could scoop back the beacon or leave it there.
It could also be used by the police to signal that there's a battle ongoing and to stay away.
Beacons
Re: Beacons
impaktor: I agree completely. We need well designed search missions. That was my initial incentive to create the SAR script. But the way it is now is not very pleasant. It will take some more thought and work (flashing beacons?, pinging emergency signals? visual search grid?) to make it real fun. Until then I opt for the shortcut of letting players select the ship to save as target for the autopilot. That way the SAR missions are neither broken nor annoying - just a little easier than originally planned. :)