A private jet carrying eight people has crashed while taking off from Bangor International Airport in the US state of Maine, aviation authorities have said.

The Bombardier Challenger 600 went down at around 19:45 local time (00:45 GMT on Monday), the Federal Aviation Administration said, but the fate and identities of those on board were not immediately clear.

The incident came as a dangerous winter storm barrelled across a large swathe of the US, killing several people and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. Pilots had reportedly been struggling with visibility at the airport before the crash.

Bangor remains under a winter storm warning until Tuesday, with heavy snowfall forecast.

Bangor International Airport said following the incident that it had closed and that emergency crews were responding, urging members of the public to avoid the area.

Audio from air traffic control, reported by the BBC’s US partner CBS News and published by LiveATC.net, captured discussions between controllers and pilots minutes before the crash concerning poor visibility, though it is unclear which aircraft were heard in the communications.

Shortly afterwards, a controller was heard saying there was “a passenger aircraft upside down”. Images from the scene showed smoke and flames on the runway.

The disruption came amid widespread travel chaos due to the storm, with more than 11,000 flights cancelled and nearly 5,500 delayed across the US on Sunday, according to tracker FlightAware.

Airports in Philadelphia, Washington DC, Baltimore, North Carolina, New York and New Jersey were among those affected.

Between 10 and 16 inches (25-40cm) of snow is forecast to accumulate in parts of Maine, including Bangor, by Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.