Missing air tanker plane fighting Oregon ‘mega-fire’ found, officials say

A single-pilot tanker plane that disappeared in eastern Oregon while fighting the Falls fire has been found, authorities said on Friday. The pilot who was on board the aircraft is dead, officials confirmed.

A Grant county search and rescue team located the aircraft on Friday morning and confirmed the death, said Lisa Clark, a Bureau of Land Management information officer for the Falls fire. The single-engine tanker, a small and nimble plane that looks like a crop duster, was located in steep, forested terrain on Friday morning after the search was suspended at nightfall the day before, Clark said.

Related: California’s largest wildfire of year grows as thousands ordered to evacuate

The plane – used to deliver gallons of fire retardant or water – had been contracted by the US Bureau of Land Management to aid firefighters near the town of Seneca, on the edge of the Malheur national forest.

Thomas Kyle-Milward, spokesperson for Northwest Incident Management Team 8, said authorities received a report of a missing aircraft at around 6.53pm on Thursday. The pilot was the only person on board and had been assisting on a lightning start.

The nearly 142,000-acre Falls fire , which began more than two weeks ago and has more than 1,500 firefighters on its lines, is one of several “mega-fires” over 100,000 acres being battled across Oregon. It is currently about 55% contained.

The Oregon senator Ron Wyden tweeted on Friday morning: “The dangers of fighting fires are constant and this developing news story from eastern Oregon is a painful reminder of that fact.”

The news comes as several wildfires are raging across western states – including in Oregon, California and Idaho. More than 1,500 sq miles (3,900 sq km) have burned so far this summer in the US Pacific north-west, and more wildfires have spread in western Canada.

Oregon still has the biggest active blaze in the United States, the Durkee fire, which has combined with the Cow fire to burn nearly 630 sq miles (1,630 sq km). It remains unpredictable and was only 20% contained on Friday, according to the government website InciWeb.