5 Die as Plane Crashes Onto Tennis Court

A private plane carrying a Canadian family of five crashed onto a tennis court at the Newport Beach Tennis Club Friday morning and exploded, killing all aboard and narrowly missing a tennis instructor and two students.

No one on the ground was injured.

The plane, based in Alberta, had just taken off from John Wayne Airport at 8:33 a.m. One witness at the airport said that just after takeoff, the plane was flying abnormally low, with at least one engine backfiring. Soon afterward, smoke was seen spewing from the plane.

‘We Have to Come Back’

Air traffic controllers observing the plane’s apparent distress radioed the pilot, who responded in a clear and calm voice, “We have to come back,” according to a federal investigator at the crash scene.

The pilot gave no indication there was any problem, and controllers received no other transmissions from him, the investigator said.

According to witnesses at the tennis club, the plane turned but dove steeply toward the expensive Eastbluff residential community less than two miles from the end of the runway. It then nosed nearly straight down in an apparent attempt to miss the tennis clubhouse, which contained an estimated 125 people. Also nearby are a shopping center and several schools.

Authorities identified the victims as pilot Anthony Ronald Deis, 35; his wife, Marilyn Aletha Deis, 34, and their three daughters, Amanda Lynn, 10; Jaclyn Dawn, 7, and Kimberly Lisa, 5. The family lived in Camrose, about 50 miles southeast of Edmonton, the capital of Alberta.

Anthony Deis was owner of three Richardson’s Jewelry stores in Alberta, and his firm was listed as owner of the plane, a twin-engine, six-seat Piper Aerostar PA-60.

The Piper Aerostar has had a history of engine-failure accidents during takeoffs and can be an unforgiving aircraft in the hands of an inexperienced pilot, according to aviation experts.

The Aviation Consumer magazine published in in Greenwich, Conn., said the Piper Aerostar has the highest accident rate among similar twin-engine aircraft. From 1977 to 1982, Aerostars were involved in 28 fatal accidents, and since 1983, the National Transportation Safety Board has recorded 20 fatal accidents involving the aircraft.

Piper Aircraft of Vero Beach, Fla., ended production of the Aerostar in 1985.

Friends said Anthony Deis had taken up flying in 1976, had well over 1,000 hours of flying experience and had an advanced instrument rating. They said, however, that Deis had owned his Aerostar for less than a year.

Deis’ brother, Tom, a police officer in Medicine Hat, Alberta, said he queried police authorities in Orange County and was told that a repaired oil line was being investigated as a possible cause of the accident.

He said the repair was done at John Wayne Airport on Wednesday. Airport officials confirmed that the plane had been serviced during its stay in Orange County, but neither federal nor Newport Beach police investigators would comment on the possible cause of the crash.

According to Tom Deis, his brother’s family had taken off from Camrose on March 22 for an Easter vacation to meet friends in Orange County and tour Disneyland.

The family’s flight plan filed Friday indicated that they were returning to Alberta by way of Pocatello, Ida.

The plane crashed about 20 yards from the corner of the clubhouse onto a tennis court, where instructor Bernie Mitton was volleying with his students.

Mitton, 34, of Irvine, who was treated for shock in a hospital emergency room but otherwise was reportedly unhurt, said one of his students shouted, “There’s a plane coming!” He said he looked up and saw the plane falling nearly straight down.

“I started to run into a corner, but it seemed like the plane just kept following me,” Mitton said. “I ran out of the corner, and within seconds it crashed and immediately exploded and burst into flames. If I had stayed in that corner, I would have been dead.

“As I ran away, it exploded behind me. You could feel the intensity of the heat.”

The plane hit with such force that only a propeller thrown to the side was easily recognizable as part of an airplane.

The remains of the aircraft lay in a heap at the corner of the tennis court, where the court’s chain-link boundary fence had been twisted and bent but contained the wreckage like a safety net.

Mitton’s students, Bob and June Vermes of Irvine, said it appeared the pilot was trying to steer the falling plane away from the players.

Veered Away

“I think he saw us and knew that he was coming toward this building,” Bob Vermes said. “He veered into where he did and missed everybody.”

June Vermes said it appeared that “my husband actually was going in one direction and the plane was just veering as though the (pilot) was trying to avoid us, to miss us.”

Jeff Rich, the National Transportation Safety Board’s chief investigator at the crash scene, reviewed a recording of the conversation between the pilot and the control tower at John Wayne Airport.

He said controllers noticed that the plane was not climbing properly and radioed the pilot, asking if there were any problems. Several seconds later, Deis responded: “We have to come back.”

Controllers then lost contact with the plane, Rich said.

Paramedics said they treated about 20 people at the club for shock but considered only four of the cases serious.

Staff writers Steve Churm, George Frank and George Bundy Smith also contributed to this story.