Authorities have discovered the wreckage of the $100m (£80m) plane that disappeared on Sunday afternoon in rural Williamsburg County.

In a North Charleston neighbourhood, the pilot parachuted to safety after ejecting from the cockpit.

It had been requested that the public assist in finding the jet.

The debris was found “two hours north-east of Joint Base Charleston”, military officials said on Monday.

Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion are the last known locations of the jet, north of Charleston.

It has been confirmed that the debris found is the wreckage of the missing plane, a military spokesperson said.

“The mishap is currently under investigation, and we cannot provide additional details to maintain the integrity of the investigation,” the Marine Corps said on Monday.

To allow investigators to do their work, the public is asked to stay away from the area.

According to Joint Base Charleston, the fighter jet was in autopilot mode when the pilot ejected, complicating its discovery because it may have been airborne for a while. A plausible sequence of events is that when the pilot ejected, the electronics for the transponder were fried and thus the military was no longer able to track its location,” JJ Gertler, a senior analyst at the Teal Group, a defence consultancy, told the newspaper during the search for the plane.

After the pilot ejected, the aircraft may have continued flying, but it would be “extremely unlikely” due to “the damage the ejection seat would have caused” and “the change in aerodynamics when the canopy is removed”.

US media reported that the aircraft, a FB-35B Lightning II, belonged to the Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501.

A stable condition was reported for the pilot who ejected. During the same flight, a second F-35 returned to base safely.”