I think the following article makes some good points.

http://tinyurl.com/yadsck

An excerpt:

The Oregon National Guard flew helicopters in the searches for the
climbers and James Kim and his family, lost in the Southern Oregon
mountains after Thanksgiving. Brig. Gen. Mike Caldwell said it costs
$2,890 an hour to fly a UH-60 Black Hawk, including fuel and maintenance,
and $7,500 to fly the larger CH-47 Chinook. On Mount Hood, the Black Hawks
flew 37 hours and the Chinooks flew 15. But nobody gets billed for that,
Caldwell said.

"From a practical standpoint, we're budgeted for those hours," he said.
"Those flight hours would have been flown anyway in training. Instead we
are able to get our people in a real-world environment."


Which is why common sense should always prevail, and why less laws are a
good thing, rather than more laws. If they were going to burn those hours
anyway, this should be factored in.

I'm for billing adventure seekers for rescues- I'm also for using common
sense in doing so.