Clarkston pilot dies fighting fires in Oregon

An air tanker pilot who was killed in an airplane crash last week while fighting fires in eastern Oregon lived at Clarkston.

James Bailey Maxwell died when his single-engine air tanker crashed Thursday night. Maxwell, 74, was working to snuff out a lightning-caused fire in the vicinity of the Falls Fire on the Malheur National Forest.

“It’s just awful — a huge loss for the aviation community,” said Gary Peters, chairperson of the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Airport Authority Board. “Anyone in the firefighting industry or the agricultural industry or aviation across the country has heard of or knows of Jim Maxwell. He is just a big deal in aviation and he was such a kind man.”

Maxwell was a pilot for more than 54 years and had logged 24,000 hours of flight time, much of it in single-engine air tankers, the smallest and most nimble fixed-winged aircraft used for fighting wildfires. He also worked as a crop duster.

“I respected him my whole life,” said Jim Pope Jr., of Leading Edge Aviation at Clarkston. “I’m younger than him and I grew up knowing him and his ability as a pilot. He was a very good pilot.”

Maxwell flew for the U.S. State Department in a coca eradication project as part of the war on drugs. Pilots would drop herbicides on the plants used to make cocaine in an effort to disrupt production of the narcotic and its eventual distribution and use in the United States.

He was shot down during one mission and suffered burns that left him scarred.

“It never really got him down,” said Pope. “He never really focused on ‘poor Jim’. He was always very positive.”

Pope said the intensity of this summer’s fire season has led to long hours by firefighters, including pilots, and that may have contributed to the accident.

“The push to try to support these fires — you feel obligated to get in there and do more and push the limits to try to help out,” Pope said.

His wife, Glenda Maxwell, told the Oregonian newspaper that he loved his work.

“He died doing what he wanted to do,” she said in an article published Tuesday.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273.