On Thursday evening July 25th, a tanker plane that was fighting wildfires in Eastern Oregon went missing. The plane and pilot were reported missing at 6:50 PM after it was sent out to fight the Falls Fire near Seneca, Oregon.
Grant County Search And Rescue was able to locate the downed aircraft on Friday morning July 26th, along with the missing pilot. Sadly, the pilot did not survive the crash. The plane was found crashed on steep terrain in a forest.
The Falls Fire is now at 140,422 acres burned and is 55 percent contained. The Falls Fire was human caused.
As the state mourns the death of the firefighting pilot, 125 active fires continue to burn across the state of Oregon at a total of more than 988,000 acres, which is greater than the size of the state of Rhode Island.
