The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is leading the multi-agency operation in “quite inaccessible” mangroves off Scarborough, following the crash on Sunday morning.

Queensland minister Stirling Hinchliffe, whose electorate of Sandgate is near the crash site north of Brisbane, led tributes on behalf of the state government on Monday.

“Obviously all of the appropriate investigations will be undertaken … and we hope that we can get to the bottom of what might have caused this awful, terrible incident,” he said on Monday.

“It just reiterates in every circumstance, how it’s important to follow all the requirements that there are to try and keep ourselves as safe as possible.”

ATSB chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said early reports suggested the plane crashed not long after takeoff, and investigators from Canberra are expected to arrive on Monday.

A 67-year-old man from Wamuran was the pilot of the Rockwell Commander 114 light airplane, police said on Sunday.

A 41-year-old Brisbane man, his 10-year-old daughter and his nine-year-old son also died in the crash.

Inspector Craig White said the pilot’s family at the aerodrome became aware of the crash after they began looking at social media when the single-engine, four-seater plane failed to return.

“There are a number of family of the pilot who were at the Redcliffe Aerodrome at the time of the accident,” he said.

“I understand it was a bit of a family day … a family joyride.”