Experienced aviator Greg Ackman has been identified as the pilot of the light plane which crashed near the Gold Coast, killing him and his passenger.

The plane came down just after take-off in bushland in Jacobs Well, near the Heck Field Airstrip, shortly before 6am on Tuesday.

Two men — the 73-year-old pilot and his passenger, a friend from Sydney — were killed, Queensland Police Superintendent Brett Jackson confirmed.

“That crash has been so significant that both occupants were unable to survive,” he said.

The explosion sparked a large grass fire in nearby cane fields, with more than 18 fire crews working alongside a Blackhawk aerial water bomber to contain it.

“Those crews are directly engaged in firefighting to try and protect a number of assets, houses that are in the path of this fire,” Rural Fire Service inspector Joel Gordon said.

State Emergency Services were also deployed to access the challenging terrain and waterways.

With winds from the south-east reaching up to 30km/h while flame heights of five to six metres were reported as the fire moved through the vegetation.

An advice message has been issued for locals due to smoke in the area.

“Conditions are not great for suppressing fire today and we’re seeing that in the erratic fire behaviour,” Gordon explained.

Friends of Ackman told 7NEWS that he had been an active member of the Jacobs Well Club for 20 years, held a helicopter licence, and had been flying for decades, often working on aircraft in his spare time.

Jackson said the flight was planned with a destination near Barraba, a small town about an hour’s drive north of Tamworth, NSW.

It is unclear why the pair were heading there, though authorities believe it may have been a joy flight.

Police will look at CCTV from the nearby private airstrip to help with their investigation into the cause of the crash.

“Unfortunately, there are no survivors but we still have a lot of work to do to uncover answers for the families, and to identify what was the causation of the crash,” he said.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has been notified and has deployed a team of transport safety investigators from its Brisbane and Canberra offices to the scene.

“They will arrive on site on Tuesday afternoon, and over coming days will conduct a range of evidence-gathering activities, including site and wreckage examination, and recovery of any aircraft components of interest for further examination at the ATSB’s technical facilities in Canberra,” a ATSB spokesperson said.