State and federal officials have said that a large plane crashed in Alaska's Denali National Park on Sunday.

The plane apparently went down about 3:30 p. m., the National Transportation Safety Board and the state Department of Public Safety officials told KTVA-TV in Anchorage.

Details of the type of aircraft involved and the fate of those on board were not available.

The plane may have been a four-engine aircraft, though authorities were still collecting information, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer told CNN.

The aircraft's impact created a large forest fire and witnesses told KTVA-TV they saw a plume of smoke near the Denali Park airstrip, said NTSB spokesman Clint Johnson.

Brent Stache of the Milwaukee area told the TV station he saw the plane go down.

Stache said, "We were kind of talking about it, and it looked like he was flying kind of low, and he banked hard to the left and went straight down we saw the fire ball come up from the back side of the mountains. If you can imagine a big jet crashing and all the airplane fuel starting on fire and going straight up in the air."

He and his wife were hiking when he saw what looked like a cargo plane almost upside down as it smashed into the hillside just a few hundred yards away, Jeff Kowalczyk told CNN.

They ran toward the wreckage but flames kept them at bay, he said.

He further added, "The whole experience was really surreal." (With Inputs from Agencies)