Emergency services were called to Hillcrest, in Brisbane's south, about 6.10am on Friday after reports an aircraft made a forced landing.
The AirMed Piper PA-31-350 had been travelling from Sydney, but the pilot reported a mechanical fault while on approach to Archerfield Airport, where the flight was scheduled to land.
The pilot, a woman from Brisbane aged in her 30s, was forced to make an emergency landing along the rail corridor only metres from the tracks.
The flight was carrying freight from Bankstown Airport to Archerfield Airport with no passengers on board.
Neighbours reported hearing a loud noise as the plane hit the ground.
"There was a descending noise of a plane, like you would expect, and then a big crash," Stuart Davies told the Courier-Mail.
"You could tell it was an aeroplane, it was a really loud bang."
Paramedics were on the scene minutes later, Queensland Ambulance Service operations supervisor James Van Den Bogert told reporters.
The pilot was able to climb free of the cabin before being taken to hospital.
"She was found to have some minor injuries, just some bruising down to her lower limbs, and a couple of lacerations to her face," Mr Van den Bogert said.
"I think it's really great that she was able to get out and that she was well enough to do so and didn't have significant injuries."
The wreckage shows significant damage to the plane's cockpit.
"When you hear 'plane crash' ... that sounds pretty awful," he said.
"But we quickly found that the patient was OK, walking, talking, conscious ... a really good outcome."
Transport company AirMed is co-operating with the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau investigation.
"The ATSB is gathering further information into the circumstances of this morning's forced landing accident to inform a decision on any potential transport safety investigation," a spokesman for the transport safety agency said.
It's the third aircraft incident in Queensland this week after a young couple died near Proserpine when their plane crashed in bad weather on Monday and a man was killed in a helicopter crash in central Queensland on Tuesday.
12°C