Folks — *IF* passengers’ cell phones and smart phones were/are still operating, then the GSM/CDMA NETWORK by itself can locate them to a CPE no larger than 1KM. That presumes of course they are in range of a compatible tower or three.
The GPS capability is not magic technology. It’s not needed to find a device, it just reduces the search radius.
The most discrete location services are good to a radius of about 9 metres on average. That’s LIS-hybrid.
But the device has to be enabled, has to be on, and has to be in range of a compatible cellular network and maybe a Wi-Fi AP or two.
The ‘ring’ these people hear when they call their relatives’ devices is not actually the ‘phone’ ringing, it is a network generated tone to tell the caller that the network is working to terminate that call on the called device.
In the US, generally if you call a device that is off, you’ll go straight to voice mail. Internationally, the network ring will start even as the ‘cloud’ tries to locate the device on various roaming networks.
Don’t buy into this crap.
When my wife’s phone is turned off or she is not in range of a tower, a call to her phone goes directly to voice mail. If I get a ring, it means he phone is attached to the system “somewhere”. BTW, I used to work for Law Enforcement Relations with one of the big Cell companies based in Seattle that likes Magenta. But that’s all I’m saying...
And yes, when visiting our offices that had the capability, they were able to pinpoint the phone in my pocket to within less than ten feet.