The sole survivor of a plane crash in B.C. that killed seven people escaped from the wreckage moments before it exploded behind him.

Burned and bleeding, the man made his way to a beach on a remote island along British Columbia's Sunshine Coast north of Vancouver Sunday.

It was there that the man was rescued by the Canadian Coast Guard, several hours after the crash.

Drew McKee, a spokesperson for the rescue crew, said the man waved to them and appeared to be in intense pain.

"His face was burned, his chest was burned, his hands were burned and he had some gashes on his body," McKee said Sunday night.

The man from was taken from Thormanby Island to Halfmoon Bay for treatment.

"He didn't have to fight his way out of the plane, because it was in pieces," McKee said. "He got out, and pretty close to after he got out, the plane went up with a whoomph."

McKee said the man said he had been sleeping before the crash and thought he may have been knocked out for a few minutes before waking up in the wreckage.

"I'm not sure when he got his burns," McKee said. "Anyway he figured he was the only one left."

Eight people were on board the plane when it crashed, according to Pacific Coastal Airlines, the plane's operators.

The Grumman Goose aircraft was reported missing by the airline on Sunday morning, said Lt. Marguerite Dodds-Lepinski.

"It's tragic, it's just tragic the whole thing," she told The Canadian Press. "The great news is, some guy, one of the survivors, walked out and is alive and the Canadian Coast Guard found him on the beach."

Dodds-Lepinski noted that emergency crews received a report from a resident about a plane in distress around 10:40 a.m. local time.

Pacific Coastal Airlines is a small airline based in B.C. that operates regional and charter flights.

The passengers were employees of heavy construction contractor Peter Kiewit Sons Co., CTV British Columbia reported Sunday.

The company is working on a river power project at Toba Inlet, which is about 160 kilometres north of Vancouver.

The plane took off from Vancouver International Airport at 10:15 a.m on a flight to Powell River, B.C.

Pacific Coastal Airlines vice-president Spencer Smith confirmed that the survivor was a passenger and not a crew member.

"I don't know what to tell you," he told The Canadian Press. "There's nothing good about this. It wouldn't take very many people to figure what it feels like, if they have any sense of empathy."

He added that the pilot was quite experienced and told CTV British Columbia that it would be "reckless" to speculate on what caused the crash.

Several rescue aircraft flew to the scene and the Coast Guard dispatched a hovercraft to assist with the effort, officials said.

In August, five people were killed when a Pacific Coastal Airlines plane crashed into rugged terrain on Vancouver Island.