PORTLAND, Ore.–James Bailey Maxwell, 74, is confirmed by the Grant County Sheriff as the pilot who was killed in a tanker plane crash near Seneca, Ore., while fighting the Falls Fire on July 25, 2024. Search and rescue teams located the wreckage of Maxwell’s plane the morning of July 26.
A Grant County Search and Rescue team on Friday morning located a small single-engine air tanker that had disappeared while fighting the 219-square-mile (567 square kilometers) Falls Fire burning near the town of Seneca and the Malheur National Forest. The pilot died, said Bureau of Land Management information officer Lisa Clark. No one else was aboard the bureau-contracted aircraft when it went down in steep, forested terrain.
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Bureau of Land Management Press Release
The wildland firefighting community is mourning the loss of one of their own. The Grant County Sheriff has confirmed that single engine air tanker pilot James Bailey Maxwell, 74, died while working in the vicinity of the Falls Fire on July 25, 2024. James was an experienced pilot who had spent 54 years of his life flying and who had logged approximately 24,000 hours of flight time. He is survived by and will be missed by family members in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
A single engine airtanker, or SEAT, is the smallest airtanker in the fire suppression fleet. These highly-maneuverable aircraft can deliver up to 800 gallons of fire retardant or water to wildland firefighters on the ground.
The Maxwell family and firefighters are grateful for the support being expressed throughout the community and online. Services have not been announced at this time and the family asks for privacy while they mourn.
