A device developed by the U.S. government can detect a human heartbeat up to 200 feet beneath rubble, but that product, deemed the “holy grail of search and rescue,” was nowhere to be found on Aug. 4, when an explosion in Beirut left countless victims beneath hundreds of collapsed buildings.

“On one hand, it’s [a] success story — we developed and commercialized the [technology],” Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate spokeswoman Anne Cutler wrote in an email. “On the other hand, five years later, it’s still not being used as widespread as it could be.”