Investigators Look for Clues to Plane Crash

Investigators Saturday began examining the remains of the private plane that crashed onto the Newport Beach Tennis Club on Friday morning, killing a Canadian couple and their three daughters who were flying home after an Orange County vacation.

National Transportation Safety Board officials declined to comment on their investigation. But a spokesman for the Canadian Aviation Safety Board, which has joined the inquiry, told the Edmonton Journal on Saturday that investigators will take a particularly close look at the wreckage of the airplane’s engines.

Witnesses said the twin-engine Piper Aerostar PA-60, flown by millionaire jeweler Anthony Ronald Deis, 35, of Camrose, Alberta, was backfiring when it took off from John Wayne Airport, began to spew smoke and failed to gain altitude. It crashed onto a tennis court and burned but did not injure anyone on the ground.

That model plane, out of production since 1985, has a history of engine-failure accidents during takeoffs. According to Aviation Consumer magazine, the Aerostar has the highest accident rate among similar twin-engine small aircraft.

Associates of Deis said Saturday that they doubted the crash was attributable to pilot error, given Deis’ training and temperament.

“Tony’s the last person you’d think who would die in an airplane crash,” said Wayne Woloshyn, a flight training specialist for Transport Canada who instructed Deis on both single- and twin-engine craft.

“Tony knew his limitations. He was well disciplined and wouldn’t go beyond his abilities,” Woloshyn said.

Fred Molnar, an Edmonton tire retailer who trained with Deis as a pilot 10 years ago, said Deis flew often as part of his jewelry business and was quite conscientious about safety.

Careful About Maintenance

Besides his caution as a pilot, Deis was fastidious about maintenance, Molnar said. Deis “never spared the horses. If there was any indication of problems, he had that airplane over in the shop real quick.”

“He never compromised on maintenance,” Woloshyn said. “He insisted on planes being well maintained. He was very fussy about the care of his airplanes.”

According to relatives, Deis had a leaky engine oil line repaired at John Wayne Airport on Wednesday, and investigators will try to determine whether the repaired line had anything to do with the crash.

Meanwhile, memorial services for family members were being arranged in Alberta.

Because the bodies of Deis, his wife, Marilyn, 34, and their daughters Amanda, 10, Jaclyn, 7, and Kimberly, 5, were burned beyond recognition, the family has decided to cremate the bodies and have the remains returned to Alberta, a family member said. Memorial services are scheduled Wednesday and funeral services Friday in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

At St. Patrick’s School in Camrose, where the two elder Deis daughters were students, a memorial was scheduled for Tuesday.

Family Mourns

“We’ve all had a rough time with this,” said Anthony Deis’ brother Tom. “It’s not like losing one or two; it’s the loss of the whole family.”

At the tennis club Saturday, workers in a somber mood were clearing the remaining debris off tennis courts in hopes of reopening the club today.

The pieces of the plane, which exploded and burned, had been removed by investigators to a Carson warehouse, where the examination was taking place. But club employees Saturday scooped up and swept away the remaining bits and piles of ash.

Among them, workers found poignant reminders of the tragic end of the Deis family’s Orange County vacation: a partially melted Donald Duck figurine from Disneyland, a jar of Knott’s Berry Farm jam still intact, bits of summery vacation clothing.

Workers erected fences and barricades around the three tennis courts damaged by the explosion and fire of the crash.

“We’ll have 16 of 19 courts available Sunday,” said Bill Parker, owner of the club in the Eastbluff section of Newport Beach. “All we’re waiting for now is the insurance company to show up and make a determination.”