Four crew members have died after their military cargo plane crashed in a fireball during a practice run in Alaska for an upcoming air show, the Air Force reported today.

The C-17 Globemaster aircraft, a massive four-engine jet known as one of the most advanced cargo aircraft in the world, was assigned to the 3rd Wing fleet at Elmendorf Air Force Base near downtown Anchorage. It crashed after takeoff Wednesday evening into a wooded area just northeast of its runway. A fireball and plumes of gray smoke were visible from a residential area nearby.

“I saw it from my home. It looked like it was about one mile north of the east-west runway,” Lt. Dave Parker of the Anchorage Police Department told Reuters.

“It was a big, gray plume of smoke, and I saw a fireball go up in it,” Anchorage Fire Dept. Capt. Bryan Grella told The Associated Press. He said the fireball shot about 750 feet into the air, about two miles from downtown.

“It was huge,” local resident Roger Herrera told the Anchorage Daily News. “My wife thought it was a nuclear bomb.”

Air Force Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins, the highest-ranking military official in Alaska, told the Daily News that the plane was practicing for this weekend’s Arctic Thunder air show at Elmendorf and that a decision would be made “very soon” on whether to go ahead with the event.

“Our deepest sympathy and sincerest condolences go out to the family and friends of those airmen killed in this crash,” 3rd Wing Commander Col. John McMullen said in a statement today, CNN reported. “Yesterday, we lost four members of our Arctic Warrior family and it’s a loss felt across our entire joint installation. Right now, our immediate focus is on providing all possible support to the loved ones of our fallen aviators. We are also engaged in a deliberate investigative process.”

Alaskan Gov. Sean Parnell and U.S. Sen. Mark Begich both issued statements late Wednesday offering condolences to the crew’s families. “Alaskans are very connected to the military, and our thoughts and prayers are with Alaska’s Air Force family,” read Parnell’s statement, excerpted by several news agencies.

The C-17 was to be featured in the air show, demonstrating its ability to take off and land in short distances. The show’s lineup also includes performances by the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels, the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles and an F-22 Raptor demonstration.

Wednesday’s crash marked the third plane crash in Anchorage this summer, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Last month, a child was killed and four other people burned when a small plane crashed after takeoff from the city’s downtown airport.

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