An air tanker battling a wildfire at Yosemite National Park crashed Tuesday afternoon, coming to rest on a granite cliff. The pilot was found dead, officials said. 
 
 By Tuesday night, rescuers had climbed to the wreckage, which was perched on a 2,500-foot escarpment near El Portal, the park's west entrance. 
 
 A National Park Service search and rescue team was the first to set out for the site in the late afternoon, lighting a path with headlamps. Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the agency's S2-T tanker crashed while fighting the 130-acre Dog Rock fire. Debris from the crash was scattered on Highway 140, which was closed because of the blaze. 
 
 Berlant said it was believed the pilot was alone in the plane, which came down in an area where many Yosemite employees reside and few tourists visit. The cause of the crash has not been determined. 
 
 Officials did not identify the pilot or his home base. Berlant said the pilot worked for DynCorp International, which also maintains Cal Fire's planes. 
 
 The Dog Rock fire was first reported about 2:45 p.m. The tanker was among a handful of aircraft fighting the blaze, which broke out on El Portal Road between the park's boundary and the Arch Rock entrance station, officials said. 
 
 Fire in Yosemite National Park Los Angeles Times Map shows location of Dog Rock fire, which an air tanker crashed while battling Tuesday, killing the pilot. Map shows location of Dog Rock fire, which an air tanker crashed while battling Tuesday, killing the pilot. (Los Angeles Times) 
 
 Word of Tuesday's crash spread quickly through the small and tight-knit community of fire aviation. 
 
 "This is a stunning development," said Bill Gabbert, a wildfire expert who operates a popular website, Wildfire Today. "Any crash is a huge deal." 
 
 Attacking fires from the air is extremely dangerous, and firefighting planes have crashed. The last time a Cal Fire air tanker crashed was in 2001, when two tankers collided while fighting a fire in Mendocino County, killing both pilots. 
 
 The pilot is usually alone in the aircraft, but there are times when a mechanic or a pilot in training are onboard, Cal Fire officials said. 
 
 Cal Fire air tanker Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times An S2-T air tanker drops retardant on a fire at Camp Pendleton in 2011. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection owns 23 of the small planes, one of which crashed Tuesday at Yosemite National Park. An S2-T air tanker drops retardant on a fire at Camp Pendleton in 2011. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection owns 23 of the small planes, one of which crashed Tuesday at Yosemite National Park. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times) 
 
 The small S2-T tankers are the workhorses of the U.S. firefighting fleet. The U.S. Forest Service — and a few state agencies such as Cal Fire — obtained the twin-engine planes from the Pentagon's "boneyard" as much as 50 years after they were used by the military to chase submarines. 
 
 The planes' safety record has been under scrutiny in recent years. 
 
 Cal Fire's tankers have been retrofitted for firefighting, adding turboprop engines and fitting reservoirs that carry 1,200 gallons of retardant. 
 
 The small planes are most effective for "initial attack," in the early hours of a fire when managers seek to prevent small fires from growing to unmanageable size. 
 
 Retardant drops do not put out fires but slow the flames' progress, allowing ground crews to move in and more safely create fire lines. 
 
 When the payload of retardant is dropped, the plane returns to a remote base to refuel and take on more retardant. Small tankers are prized for their ability to make a number of sorties each day and for their maneuverability, particularly in California's canyon fires. 
 
 Gabbert called S-2Ts dependable. 
 
 "I'm not aware of a chronic problems," he said. 
 
 California is one of a handful of states to maintain a fleet of firefighting planes. Cal Fire has 23 S-2T tankers operated by DynCorp, which also provides the pilots. The McLean, Va., company's performance with Cal Fire was awarded the Diamond Award of Excellence in 2012 and 2013 by the Federal Aviation Administration. 
 
 The federal fleet has been shrinking, as the Forest Service seeks to modernize the planes. The agency has for some time sought to entice the aviation industry to build a dedicated firefighting plane, to no avail. 
 
 adolfo.flores@latimes.com 
 
 Twitter: @AdolfoFlores3 
 
 julie.cart@latimes.com 
 
 Twitter: @julie_cart 

 An air tanker battling a fire burning on the west side of Yosemite National Park crashed Tuesday afternoon, authorities said, underscoring the danger of wildfires fueled by the historic drought that have broken out across the state in recent months. 
 
 The plane, a Grumman S2 Tracker that is operated by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and is designed to drop flame retardant from its belly, crashed about 4:30 p.m. near Arch Rock, said Ashley Mayer, a Yosemite spokeswoman. 
 
 At about 6:45 p.m, Cal Fire reported that rescue teams had reached the crash site in rugged terrain and were working to determine the condition of the pilot. 
 
 It was not clear whether anyone was on the plane besides the pilot, but the Grumman S2 Tracker is usually flown with only a pilot aboard, said Alyssa √Smith, a Cal Fire spokeswoman. 
 
 The Dog Rock Fire broke out on the west side of Yosemite on Tuesday afternoon, prompting road closures and evacuations as it quickly scorched more than 130 acres, officials said. 
 
 The fire was reported around 2:45 p.m. off El Portal Road — the continuation of Highway 140 that leads into Yosemite — between the park boundary and the Arch Rock entrance station. 
 
 About 50 people were evacuated from the community of Foresta, officials said, and El Portal Road between the park boundary and the junction with Big Oak Flat Road was closed to all traffic. 
 
 Visitors trying to get to Yosemite Valley could still take Wawona Road, which is an extension of Highway 41, or Big Oak Flat Road, an extension of Highway 120. 
 
 Cal Fire has been using aircraft to fight fires since the 1950s, beginning with World War II biplanes and torpedo bombers. It now has a fleet of more than 50 aircraft, including helicopters and planes. Some drop water or retardant and others are used to plan strategy and drop off firefighters. 
 
 The agency began using the S2 Trackers in the 1970s, and sped up its transition to the former military planes after six accidents within a two year period involving torpedo bombers. The S2 Trackers were originally built as an aircraft carrier-based, anti-submarine warfare plane. 
 
 Cal Fire now has about two dozen of the newest version of the S2 Tracker, which hauls up to 1,200 gallons of retardant at a time and can travel in excess of 300 mph. They are used when the agency needs to quickly drop retardant on advancing blazes. 
 
 The most recent aircraft-related death at Cal Fire occurred in 2006, when a spotter plane crashed in the Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest in Tulare County, killing the two people on board. Federal investigators found the cause was pilot error. 
 
 Staff writer Marisa Lagos contributed to this story.
– An air tanker fighting a wildfire at Yosemite National Park mysteriously crashed yesterday, killing the pilot, the Los Angeles Times reports. A spokesman for the state's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says it's believed the pilot was alone in the plane and that he worked for DynCorp International, a contractor that provides planes to California's firefighting forces. Rescue efforts were initially hampered due to the crash site's location: the top of a 2,500-foot cliff. An FAA spokesman notes that the plane crashed "under unknown circumstances," CNN reports. The pilot—whose name his family asked to be withheld until other loved ones are notified—was battling the Dog Rock fire, which has already raged over 130 acres and prompted park officials to evacuate at least 60 homes, notes CNN. The S-2T tanker that crashed was one of 26 that Cal Fire bought nearly 20 years ago from the Department of Defense, souping them up "with modern, powerful turboprop engines" that made them "faster, safer, and more maneuverable." The air tankers can speed around a fire site at more than 300mph and dump 1,200 gallons of fire retardant at once, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Although a wildfire expert tells the Times that the S-2Ts are "dependable," the newspaper notes that the US Forest Service has been pushing for a plane specifically designed for firefighting. (This Alaska wildfire was bigger than the city of Chicago.)