A single-engine plane with only the pilot aboard crashed Thursday in a rugged area of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in Alaska and burst into flames. 

A park release said that about 9:30 a.m. local time Thursday the National Park Service Alaska Regional Communications Center received a call from the state-wide Rescue Coordination Center reporting a missing aircraft with an Emergency Locator Transmitter hit in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve.

Lake Clark rangers took to the air in the park's plane and searched for the ELT. 

"A Regal Air aircraft was found downed and burning in the Miller Creek drainage within the National Preserve," the release said. "The National Park Service was not able to land at the site of the crash. Regal Air reports that the pilot was the sole occupant of the Cessna 206 aircraft."

Regal Air is an air taxi and sightseeing company based in Anchorage.

Alaska State troopers were responding to the site with a helicopter. National park rangers and the Alaska State troopers were to handle recovery operations.

The National Transportation Safety Board was to conduct an investigation into the crash.