Updated June 15
A U.S. Coast Guard aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing at Martha’s Vineyard Airport on Thursday morning, which led to delays for commercial airlines.
According to Martha’s Vineyard Airport director Geoff Freeman, a Coast Guard fixed-wing CASA plane was conducting training in the area when it experienced mechanical and electrical issues.
“They had to shut one engine down, and declared an emergency to land at the Vineyard airport,” he said.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Briana Carter confirmed there was an engine malfunction, but didn’t have further details.
The airport’s fire trucks were deployed to be on standby, and mutual aid partners were called, although the emergency support was canceled while they were en route.
Freeman said the plane landed safely at approximately 10:20 am, but it was on the airport’s primary commercial runway. It couldn’t be moved without special equipment, and the airport needed to wait for personnel to be flown over from Joint Base Cape Cod.
The Coast Guard plane prevented commercial and private airlines from landing their aircraft at the airport. Delta and JetBlue flights to the airport were delayed, and planes already on the way had to be rerouted to another airport, according to Freeman.
A second Coast Guard plane arrived a little after 2 pm. The malfunctioning plane was towed away, and the runway was reopened for use around 2:40 pm.
“[They] are assessing the aircraft now but most likely it will be worked on here,” Freeman said in a text Thursday afternoon.
Freeman said there were no injuries.
Any updates??
Yes, the plane was broken.
How could an airport NOT have the proper towbar to remove a plane from the main runway? What if another plane had an emergency?
There are hundreds of different tow bars for thousands of different planes.
Should every tow bar be at the Airport?
How much will that cost?
Do our Airport personnel have the skill set to tow all aircraft that could land at our airport?
How much should we spend to keep this from happening again?
Is it time for a knee jerk?
Why do we allow this foreign built junk into our country?
Maybe they were just picking up a motorcycle.