Tragedy struck as two men lost their lives in a dramatic light aircraft crash near a regional airfield, sparking a nearby bushfire.

To contain the blaze that erupted after the crash, water bombing aircraft were deployed to the scene north of the Gold Coast, where the fully-fueled plane had gone down.

Emergency responders quickly converged on Heck Field, a privately-owned airstrip north of the Gold Coast, following reports of the crash in adjacent bushland around 6 a.m. on Tuesday.

Authorities confirmed that the 73-year-old pilot from Beenleigh and a male passenger, believed to be from Sydney, perished when the plane crashed shortly after taking off from the Jacobs Well location.

Officials noted that the single-engine aircraft was bound for a destination near Tamworth, New South Wales, with these two individuals as its sole occupants.

“That crash has been so significant that both occupants were unable to survive,” police superintendent Brett Jackson said on Tuesday.

The light plane crashed near Heck Field air strip in Woongoolba. Source: AAP / Robyn Wuth

The wreckage caught alight on impact, sparking a large fire about 500 metres from the airstrip in terrain emergency services found difficult to access.

Police said it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash.

Transport safety investigators arrived on site on Tuesday afternoon.

It had been reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau that the aircraft crashed shortly after take-off.

“The aircraft was destroyed in a post-impact fire, and the pilot and passenger on board were fatally injured,” the bureau’s chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said in a statement.

Police said earlier the pilot’s flight history would be part of the investigation.

“We are aware the planned flight was to a small town just outside of Tamworth, so we have that information,” Jackson said.

“As to the intention behind the trip, I don’t actually have that information, that will form part of the investigation.”

A large plume of smoke could be seen kilometres from the crash site late on Tuesday morning, while about 50 emergency services personnel were on the scene.

The crash site has been difficult to access for the ambulance, police and fire crews due to farmland and a nearby creek.

Water bombers have been called in to help crews working to contain the large bushfire, which is burning through nearby cane paddocks and vegetation.

SES crews were also helping by ferrying resources including forensic equipment across a creek to the crash site, police said.

More than 60 hectares of land had been affected as crews worked to bring the fire under control.

The fire was finally contained about midday, but continued to burn on Tuesday afternoon.

“Conditions are not great for suppressing fire today, and we’re seeing that in the erratic fire behaviour over the last couple of hours,” Rural Fire Service Queensland chief officer Joel Gordon said.

“Also the speed in which this fire has grown with the southeaster that’s blowing which is supposed to get up to around about 30 kilometres an hour.”

For the latest from SBS News, download our app and subscribe to our newsletter.