The pilot of the amphibious Grumman Goose and four of the six passengers died when the plane went down 10 minutes after taking off Sunday for a logging camp on Chamiss Bay, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported Monday.

The report didn't give a condition of the survivors.

The vintage aircraft was carrying employees of Seaspan International Ltd. of Vancouver from Port Hardy to a site near the village of Kyuquot on the west coast of the island.

"Cellular telephone call and text messages are leading searchers to the crash site, which is on top of a mountain in mid-Vancouver Island," Gerry Pash of the Joint Rescue Coordination Center told CBC Sunday afternoon.

Pash said the daylong search was "incredibly frustrating," for the survivors.

"He can see the search-and-rescue planes but we can't find him.," Pash said.

It took until nightfall for rescuers to arrive at the site.