Plane Crashes on O.C. Tennis Court; 5 Die : Pilot Seems to Veer From Clubhouse as Tennis Players Flee

A private plane carrying a Canadian family of five crashed onto a tennis court at the Newport Beach Tennis Club Friday morning, exploding in a fireball and killing all aboard.

The plane narrowly missed tennis players and the clubhouse. No one on the ground was injured.

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

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.

Witnesses at the tennis club said the plane turned but dove steeply toward the pricey Eastbluff residential community less than 2 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. A shopping center and several schools are nearby.

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. All 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.

Aviation Consumer magazine of 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 flown the Aerostar for less than a year.

Oil Line Investigated

Anthony Deis’ brother, Tom, a police officer in Medicine Hat, Canada, said he contacted police 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.

Tom Deis said 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 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 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 a chain-link boundary fence had been twisted and bent but contained the wreckage like a net.

Little of the wreckage littered the adjoining court, where no one had been playing at the time of the crash. None of the wreckage was thrown to the other end of court where Mitton and his students had retreated.

Steering Away

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

“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.”

Lois Jacobs, Ruth Bowman and Lisa Murdy, all of Newport Beach, were playing on a court about 50 yards away and saw the plane descending, while Mitton and his students scrambled to escape.

The plane burst into “a huge ball of flame, then it exploded,” Murdy said.

“The explosion went straight up; it didn’t spread out,” Bowman said. “That’s what saved them.”

Another of the club’s six tennis instructors, Kevin Forbes, was two courts away from the crash and said he saw and heard four distinct explosions.

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.

Deis gave no indication that the plane was experiencing mechanical difficulties or that he was suffering from any physical ailment or problem, Rich said. Deis’ voice was calm, clear and had no tone of concern or alarm, he added.

Danger Was Apparent

Bill Parker, owner of the tennis club, said the possibility of such a crash had been apparent to him for a long time.

“Every day I see these planes take off. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought of what might happen.”

Parker said that if the crash had occurred later, all the tennis courts would have been full. “We’re just incredibly lucky no one on the ground was hurt,” he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched half a dozen investigators and workers to the scene, who in the afternoon began the laborious task of scooping up the remains of the craft and loading it into a trailer that would carry it to a warehouse in Carson for inspection.

Rich, the NTSB investigator, said the removal probably would not be completed before this morning.

Paramedics said they treated about 20 people at the club for shock, but considered only four of the cases serious. The Orange County chapter of the American Red Cross sent a psychologist, four psychiatric technicians and two nurses to the scene to counsel witnesses.

Times staff writers Steven R. Churm, George Frank and George Bundy Smith contributed to this story.