Rescue Chief: Unreported Routes Are the Main Cause of Delays in Finding Missing Tourists

The main reason searches for missing tourists drag on is that travelers often fail to tell rescue services their planned route and expected return time, said Grigory Sergeyev, head of the Liza Alert search-and-rescue team, in an interview with TASS.

Without that information, a signal that someone has missed a check-in or failed to arrive at a meeting point comes far too late, making the rescuers' job much harder. Sergeyev stressed the problem affects not only mountain tourism but water tourism as well.

He urged travelers to notify the relevant agencies in advance of their plans in regions where official route registration is required.

Separately, volunteers from the Liza Alert regional branch described the conditions under which the search for the Usoltsev family would stop, saying work ends only in two cases: if the missing are found, or if circumstances arise that make further efforts by volunteers impossible.