A U.S. Coast Guard aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport Thursday, after one of the plane’s engines malfunctioned during a routine drill four miles off the coast of the Island.

None of the four personnel on board were injured during the incident, said airport manager Geoffrey Freeman, however landings at the airport’s primary runway had to be shut down for the better part of the day.

“We rarely have issues with the Coast Guard,” Mr. Freeman said.

The aircraft, a Coast Guard CASA reconnaissance plane, touched down at the airport around 10:20 a.m., he said, after notifying the control tower of an electrical and mechanical issue with the engine.

The plane remained at the airstrip until around 2:30 p.m., Mr. Freeman said, when another Coast Guard plane with proper towing equipment could be brought in from the Joint Base on Cape Cod.

Per Coast Guard regulations, no other aircraft could make use of the commercial strip while the CASA plane remained on the runway, leading to flight delays. Some Cape Air planes, however, were able to make use of the smaller airport runways.