Transportation Safety Board investigators and Quebec provincial police are on the scene of a deadly plane crash in the northern part of the province.

Two people - the pilot and a passenger - died and three people were injured when a DHC-2 Beaver float plane crashed Saturday in a swamp two kilometres from the La Grande Riviere airport, not far from James Bay.

Two of the passengers were seriously injured. All three survivors were flown to a hospital in Montreal.

Quebec provincial police spokesman Richard Gagne confirmed Sunday that at least two of the passengers were from Ontario.

Cause under investigation

Investigators are examining whether pilot error or a mechanical problem caused the crash. Quebec provincial police investigators ruled out any possibility of foul play.

The pilot worked for Nordair, a commercial and corporate airline that operates in the James Bay and Hudson Bay area.

Transportation Safety Board spokesman John Cottreau said Sunday two safety board investigators will be interviewing witnesses and extracting the plane from the swamp to examine the aircraft. Six police investigators are also assisting the investigation.

The weather in the region was clear at the time of the crash.

Fifth crash this summer

Since May, 19 people have died in small plane crashes in Quebec.

On July 16, the same model float plane -- a DHC-2 Beaver -- slammed into a mountain in Quebec's Lac-Saint-Jean region, killing four people and injuring two more.

On June 23, seven people died when a twin-turboprop Beechcraft King Air 100 went down shortly after takeoff from Quebec City's Jean Lesage Airport.

On June 4, two men died when their float plane crashed into Lac Berte in northern Quebec. The craft was recovered from the bottom of the lake a month later.

And on May 19, a Cessna 172 carrying three men and a woman slammed into an embankment on a tiny island in the St. Lawrence River, killing all four occupants.

Cottreau said Sunday investigators would take the rash of small plane crashes into account as part of their analysis into the accident.

"Part of the regular process for us in any investigation is to look back in the history and to check for trends," he said.

"If there's a trend we'll uncover it."