An Alaska Seaplanes Cessna 208 crashed Friday morning (Lyndsey Brollini/KTOO)

Flights across Southeast Alaska have been diverted or delayed after a small commercial plane crashed shortly after takeoff on Friday morning at Juneau’s airport. 

The National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska chief Clint Johnson says the craft  involved was a single-engine prop plane operated by Alaska Seaplanes. 

 “It’s an Alaska Seaplanes Cessna 208. Six folks on board total six, six souls on board,” Johnson said. “But things are very, very fluid and it’s unfolding as we speak right now.”

Alaska Seaplanes representative Andy Kline says no one was injured aboard flight 501 which took off shortly after 8:15 a.m. Friday. It was bound for Skagway and then Haines. 

“We talked to all five passengers and the pilot and they’ve all been checked out by Capital City Fire and Rescue by the medical professionals there. So no injuries reported and everyone’s in good spirits,” he said.

Kline says it’s too early to say what caused the trouble in the air. 

“But we know that there was an incident, and the plane ended up back on the runway kind of on its belly and turned around in the opposite direction so there was a definite bit of you know, got a little bit in the air and and and then got spun around. We don’t really know much more than that.”

He says all Alaska Seaplanes flights will be grounded Friday.

“We’ll be working with the National Transportation Safety Board to put together an investigation of it and figure out exactly what happened,” Kline said. “We go through protocols of investigating and looking at the mechanics of the plane talking to our pilot talking to our mechanics and looking at what might have happened or what possibly failed or what could have possibly gone wrong on the flight.”

Kline says the airline expects flights to resume by Saturday, and are making arrangements to get passengers home safely. Meanwhile, Alaska Airlines website shows scheduled flights have been diverted or delayed while Juneau’s runway is cleared to reopen.

Reporting by Jacob Resneck, CoastAlaska and Corinne Smith, KHNS in Haines

Editor’s note: Investigators initially reported that they believed there were minor injuries in the plane crash. However, after medics arrived at the scene, they reported there were no injuries.