Near Airport, Residents Complain of Planes Veering Over Their Homes

Chris and Sheri Dialynas thought they knew what to expect when they bought their expansive home in Santa Ana Heights with a spectacular view of the Upper Newport Bay, within a stone’s throw of John Wayne Airport.

But with Friday’s crash of a twin-engine Piper Aerostar into the nearby Newport Beach Tennis Club, they said their worst fear since moving to their home 1 1/2 years ago has come true.

“We did research before we moved in about the danger from a crash, rather than just the noise problem,” 34-year-old Chris Dialynas said Friday. “We knew we were on the fringe of the flight path, but we didn’t expect to have planes flying chaotically over our home. The accident today confirms what we had come to expect. The planes have started cutting over our house more and more.”

Heard From House

Sheri Dialynas said she saw the Piper go down Friday as she was putting her son in a stroller for a walk. The plane sputtered loudly and appeared to be only a few feet above her roof, she said.

“It looked like something was wrong, but I didn’t think it was going to crash. We’re always nervous, and this confirms our fears,” the 31-year-old mother said. “It doesn’t make us feel very good.”

Residents who live, work and play around busy John Wayne Airport have long complained of its inconvenience and potential danger. But many say the situation has worsened in recent years, and they cite what they called “erratically” flying aircraft that often seem to veer from normal flight patterns to pass over their homes.

Two homeowners groups, in fact, have sued the airport over noise problems and, as a result of subsequent negotiations, a limit of 55 flights a day at the airport was established in a settlement among the groups, the county and the city of Newport Beach.

Limit to Increase

In 1990, the limit will be raised to 73 flights a day and it is estimated that the passenger load will exceed more than 8.4-million people a year. In the year 2005, new flight limits will be set.

Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration and John Wayne Airport have said they believe the field has one of the lowest accident rates in the United States. But there have been a number of midair near-collisions involving planes using John Wayne.

And several people have been killed or injured in numerous incidents at or near the airport in recent years. Planes have crashed and made emergency and crash-landings in vacant fields, the ocean and an empty baseball field. One plane even struck a moving car on a public street in the vicinity.

There have been 62 accidents on runways, taxiways and aircraft parking areas of the airport itself since 1983.

The residents said Monday’s crash has only heightened existing concerns.

Thoughts of Moving

Solly Shatzen said he and his wife, Evelyn, have lived in their home on Vista Trucha, only a few hundred feet from the crash site, for 16 years. But Friday’s crash is enough to make the couple consider moving, he said.

Solly Shatzen was home when the plane crashed, and he said the impact “shook the house and windows like a 100-ton piece of equipment or something fell to the ground.”

“The noise was so loud that I was surprised that it was a small plane,” he said.

“I’m not going to pack up and leave tomorrow. But yes, it is a consideration. The airport was small when we moved here. But the way it’s grown, it’s much too large for an area like this.

“The noise is a problem, but the other thing is, you know that one of them (the planes) is going to drop one day.”

Evelyn Shatzen, who, like her husband, is in the real estate business, described the skies over her home as “like gridlock on the freeway.”

“The skies will accommodate only so much,” she said. “It’s something to walk outside your house and see smoke and realize you’re 100 feet from it.”

Courts Usually Full

Pat Bates, 52, who lives off Vista Prada, was one of scores of residents who stopped by the tennis club to try to glimpse some of the wreckage from the crash. The sidewalk leading to the courts was blocked off, however, and onlookers huddled near the entrance, trying to peer through gaps in the green walls surrounding the tennis courts.

“It’s a shame. It’s heartbreaking, and it gives me the chills talking about it,” Bates said. “We’ve all been concerned about the flight path the planes have been taking over the houses. We’ve complained, signed petitions, but nothing happens.”

Still, Bates, who said she uses the pool at the tennis club frequently, said it was fortunate the accident did not claim more lives. “The courts are usually full all the time,” she said.

‘You Always Think of That’

Syd Ball of Newport Beach, who had been playing tennis on the court behind the crash site, said players at the club are well aware of the potential for such a crash.

“You always think of that,” said Ball, gazing upward. “It’s like getting hit in a car, there’s so bloody many of them (planes) up there.”

Barbara Lappe, who has lived in a home on Vista Roma for several years, was one of the few residents who said the crash did not heighten her fears.

“It’s a tragic thing to happen, but it doesn’t really frighten me,” she said. “I think the chances (of a plane crashing) are far less than (car crashes) on the freeway. I just don’t think we can fear everything.”

Staff writers Steve Emmons and Jeffrey A. Perlman contributed to this story.