A small plane has crashed into a hangar, causing a fire at Parafield Airport in Adelaide’s north.

At about 2:10pm, police and emergency services were called to an area near Kings Road after reports that a small plane had hit a hangar as it was attempting to land, police said in a statement.

There is no confirmation of how many people were on board the aircraft or were in the building.

“There are reports of injuries at the scene. There’s no confirmed numbers at this stage,” Senior Constable Matt Brown from SA Police said.

A large number of student pilots were among those evacuated from the scene.

Smoke coming from buildings behind a fence

The airport has been closed to all air traffic. (Supplied: Joshua Lee Swannell)

‘Nosedive’ over buildings

Eyewitness Joshua Swannell was driving near the airport at the time when he saw the crash.

“All I could hear was this plane kind of pitch,” Mr Swannell said.

“The pitch that it took, you could hear it struggle then straight down.

“I looked up and saw the plane up in the corner — go up, tilt, straight back down, nosedive — over the buildings.

a man talks to the camera

Joshua Swannell says he saw the plane nosedive. (ABC News)

“I just heard the crash, it just happened all so quick.”

Mr Swannell filmed the aftermath of the crash and said black smoke quickly appeared after the crash.

“Within minutes it was just already so black, you couldn’t see anything — no flames, but just all black,” he said.

Smoke among hangars and grass at an airport

Smoke billows from the crash site. (Supplied: Joshua Lee Swannell)

Smoke over suburbs

Thick black smoke from the hangar has spread across the nearby area and the Metropolitan Fire Service has advised people to stay indoors.

“If you or anyone in your care are having difficulty breathing, seek medical attention from your local GP. If your symptoms become severe, call 000,” an MFS advice update said.

891 ABC Adelaide listener Ben told the station he saw large amounts of smoke billowing from the hangar.

“It looks like a large fire in an aeroplane hangar. I’ve seen multiple fire trucks going through — this is probably the fifth one now, and multiple emergency services heading out there. It’s pretty big,” he said.

“You could see the gable in the front doors of the hangar billowing out black smoke, just coming out. Couldn’t see flames but it was quite large — you could see some sort of fuel.”

People, most in white shirts, mill around on a lawn.

Dozens of students were at the Parafield Airport site after the crash. (ABC News: Olivia Mason)

Investigation beginning

An airport spokesperson confirmed in a statement they were aware of the incident.

“Parafield Airport has been closed to all air traffic,” the statement said.

“We will provide full support to the emergency services in their response to this incident.”

Fire trucks on a tarmac near hangars

Emergency services at the scene. (ABC News: Guido Salazar)

In a statement, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said it had “commenced a transport safety investigation into the accident involving a twin-engined Diamond DA42 aircraft at Adelaide’s Parafield Airport on Wednesday afternoon”.

“The ATSB has deployed a team of transport safety investigators from its Canberra and Brisbane offices, specialising in aircraft operations, maintenance and engineering, human factors and survival factors,” it said.

“They will arrive on site on Thursday morning, 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.”

SA Police Major Crash officers are at the scene.