The Transportation Safety Board is investigating a plane crash in Northern Ontario that left three people dead and a fourth injured.

The crash happened in Pickle Lake, which is located 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Officers from the Ontario Provincial Police and the Nishnawbe Aski First Nation found the aircraft in a densely wooded area three kilometres east of the runway at the Pickle Lake airport.

The rescuers were guided to the area by a plane from the military's Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre, which airlifted the lone survivor to hospital in Winnipeg for treatment of minor injuries.

The plane, a privately registered Lake Renegade seaplane, had recently been sold and was being flown to its new owner when it crashed, said John Cottreau, a TSB spokesman.

Pickle Lake, which has a population of about 400, is the main supply point for several Northern Ontario aboriginal communities.