For a few of the lost person categories , this is possible to a point. Without information, it is difficult to run an effective search.
Planning is quesswork at best.
The area of search planning that has received the least amout of attention, is Time Line Analysis . Without a contiguous time line, planning becomes dependent upon guesswork again. Analysing a Time line is of paramount importance for predicting lost person behaviour and location. No, much more discussion is needed. I'm going to say that the stats mentioned here are reasonably old, and haven't been updated with the new stuff.