Two of seven people have survived a plane crash along the northern shoreline of Vancouver Island. One of the survivors had sent text messages from his cellphone to a friend, to help search crews find him.

Their plane, the Grumman Goose, went down Sunday morning.

The victims have not been identified. However, Seaspan International released a statement confirming that four of its employees died in the crash.

"We offer our deepest sympathies to the families and will be working directly with them and the two Seaspan survivors to provide grief and trauma counselling," it read.

Rescue officials used search planes to scour for any signs of the missing aircraft.

One of the survivors used his cellphone to call and send text messages to a friend, who passed on the information to rescue officials.

"(The survivor) was indicating in mid-afternoon that he was able to see the search aircraft, but we were not able to see him," Lt.-Cmdr. Gerry Pash, of the Victoria Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre, told CTV British Columbia. "That would not be unusual, given the terrain and the tree cover."

Pash added that it was impossible to contact the survivor directly.

"It would go to voicemail. I suspect that has something to do with the condition of the cellphone," he said.

The calls and texts ended by late afternoon, apparently because the cellphone had run out of power.

By late Sunday, the two survivors were being transported to Comox, where they were expected to be met by ambulance.

The Grumman Goose was flying between the Vancouver Island town of Port Hardy and Chamiss Bay. The flight was apparently supposed to be only 30-minutes long.