The RCMP and Transportation Safety Board have begun an investigation into a horrific float plane accident that killed six people in the B.C. Gulf Islands Sunday.
Search and rescue crews recovered the bodies of six people, including an infant, who were in the plane when it crashed during takeoff in Lyall Harbour, off Saturna Island.
Two passengers, a man and a woman, were rescued shortly after the crash and are expected to survive.
In Pictures: B.C. Plane Crash
"As it stands presently our search efforts have been concluded," Tom Haddock at the B.C. Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria, told CTV's Canada AM.
"We have located the aircraft in approximately 40 feet of water in Lyall Harbour. All the people have been accounted for and recovered at this time."
Reports Monday suggest a Burnaby, B.C., doctor and her infant were among the victims. The Island District RCMP said two of the victims are American citizens but no further details have been released about the cause of the crash or the victim's identities.
Seair president Peter Clarke was expected to meet with TSB investigators Monday morning.
A statement issued by the company said Seair Seaplanes is fully cooperating with the investigation. All inquiries are being directed to the TSB lead investigator, Bill Yearwood.
Survivors
The sole survivors of the crash are the pilot and a female passenger.
The woman was pulled from the water hypothermic, but both are expected to survive. The pair is recovering at Victoria General Hospital.
"The pilot is in serious but stable condition, the passenger is in stable condition," Lt. Paul Pendergast of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre said.
Weather is not expected to be a factor in the crash, Canadian Coast Guard spokesperson Mike Stacey told CTV News Channel.
"When our resources got on scene they weren't particularly hampered by visibility or high winds or anything like that," he said.
He also said it is unclear whether there is a black box on the plane that could provide clues as to what happened.
Search and rescue teams were able to respond quickly after receiving reports that a plane had gone down.
"The BC Ferries shore staff in Lyall Harbour -- that is a terminal for BC Ferries -- they called in with the report. We also go some concerned citizens reports, however some of the information was conflicting but all pointing to the same thing happening -- a horrific plane crash," Haddock said.
Stacey said witnesses who saw the plane go down did provide critical information that helped search crews to find the wreckage. He explained that it is up to the company that owns the plane whether to try to salvage what remains of the plane.
Eight people were aboard the Seair plane when it went down, but two were rescued by auxiliary coast guard members.
Officials say the plane crashed around 4:30 p.m., Sunday. Local residents, including some who had gathered at a local pub to watch the Grey Cup game, scrambled to their boats to help search for survivors.
"We saw the plane was in the water, at a 45-degree angle with one wing in the water and the tail and other wing sticking out. The nose was in the water," Allen Olsen, a 62-year-old retiree, told The Canadian Press.
But he said that by the time people had reached their boats, the plane had disappeared beneath the water's surface.
"All I saw was a little bit of oil slick and one piece of paper on the water and nothing else, no other debris that I can find," he said.
The plane had made a stop at Saturna to collect two of the eight passengers, and was expected to continue to Vancouver, about 50 kilometres to the north.
With files from The Canadian Press
