They sent up six flares earlier in the week, but they did not have an emergency position indicator radio beacon that would have assisted rescuers.
In the center of each park would be a reflecting pool, and in the center of each pool a beacon that would, as evening falls, shoot heavenward in remembrance of those who lost their lives there.
At the briefing Wednesday, Paul Louis Arslanian, who is directing the investigation, said searchers were working day and night to find the beacon that would indicate where in the ocean the voice and data recorders ended up.
But today the United States – the country that had, from its birth, seen itself as a beacon that would inspire the world, a society that praised itself as "the last best hope of earth", the nation that had seemed to be bending the arc of history towards justice, as Barack Obama so memorably put it on this same morning eight years ago – has stepped into the abyss.
With the aid of cockpit instruments, the pilots were supposed to home in on a navigational beacon that would guide them to the runway.
These rocks are embedded with LEDs that flicker on when people interact with them, providing a beacon that would draw any human's attention, like the proverbial moth to the flame.
One plan calls for a clear "beacon" tower that would be among the world's tallest structures.
The Bush administration's grandiose original vision of transforming Iraq into a beacon of democracy that would alter the Middle East and drain the swamps of terrorism was scuttled and replaced by the more realistic goal of getting American forces out and leaving behind a country that was somewhat stable and, with luck, perhaps democratic and respectful of human rights.
The president spoke there of its evocative power as a place of both profound sadness and hope, a beacon of the courage that would "abolish slavery and ultimately win civil rights for all people".
These works propose added signaling in the form of beacons sent by the receivers that would enable a better MAC protocol achieving higher spectral efficiency.
