A plane has crashed in stormy weather in Papua New Guinea's remote forests, killing 28 people and leaving four survivors, officials have said.

Two pilots – one Australian and one New Zealander – were among those who survived Thursday's crash on the northern coast, Australia's foreign affairs department said.

The Airlines PNG Dash 8 plane crashed while flying from Lae to the resort hub of Madang, Papua New Guinea's Accident Investigation Commission spokesman Sid O'Toole said.

Most of the passengers had been parents travelling to attend their children's university graduation ceremony in Madang this weekend, according to the Australian Associated Press news agency.

The duty manager at the Madang Resort, Donald Lambert, said six of the plane's occupants – one passenger and five crew members – had reservations to stay at his hotel. "I went to meet them at the airport," he said.

The crash site was 12 miles (20km) south of Madang. Police and ambulances had reached the crash site and investigators were on their way.

Australian consular officials were planning to travel to Madang on Friday.

"Initial indications are that there are no Australians amongst those killed," Australia's foreign affairs department said in a statement.

Trevor Hattersley, the Australian high commission's warden in Madang, said the plane went down during a violent storm in remote jungle not far from the coast. "The weather was horrendous," Hattersley said. "There was a huge storm that came through at the same time – big rain, big wind."

The storm had flooded the only road from the crash site to Madang, so rescuers had to get the four survivors to the nearest beach and transport them to Madang by boat.

Papua New Guinea journalist Scott Waide told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he had visited the hospital where the survivors were being treated. One of the survivors told a nurse he fled the burning wreckage through a crack in the fuselage.

"He told the nurses he was sitting on the seventh seat and the plane broke in half," Waide told the ABC. "While struggling to get out his arms got burned and his back got burned."

Airlines PNG said a full investigation was under way and it had temporarily grounded its fleet of 12 Dash 8 planes.