It has been known for a long time that one of the best places to look for a missing aircraft is in the immediate vicinity of the departure airport. A story posted on the web site gives a recent illustration: http://www.capvolunteernow.com/headline_news.cfm/aerial_search_in_sc_yields_body_of_pilot_missing_for_2_weeks?show=news&newsID=11960 (http://www.capvolunteernow.com/headline_news.cfm/aerial_search_in_sc_yields_body_of_pilot_missing_for_2_weeks?show=news&newsID=11960)
I know that our Wing had a search fairly recently that was resolved in a similar fashion. While the mission staff had sent a sortie (maybe 2) over that grid it wasn't really treated to any sort of special focus. Seems to me that it would almost be worth it to keep a plane searching the vicinity of the airport almost full-time unless rock solid information demonstrates that it made it further than that.
Nice when our doctrine gets a validating shot in the arm once in a while.
As I posted earlier this year (last winter)we found an airplane crashed about 500 yards off of the departure end of the runway (after a cross country flight he botched the go around apparently) fortunately the only injury was a broken tooth. No missing A/C report just an ELT reported by airliners 100 miles away. We finally tracked the ELT to the airport and naturally assumed it was one of the 2 A/C on the ramp. We managed to fly right over it as it was partially obscured by trees and didn't find it until we landed. That's what we got for assuming >:D
Purposely and thoroughly checking the extended runway center line from both directions at the arrival airport is a good idea too.
"Search In, Search Out."
Unless you have something more important to do, if the prop is turning a Scanner or Observer should be looking for anything that doesn't look right.