Crash Inquiry Focusing on Plane Repairs

Federal officials investigating the crash of a private plane in Newport Beach are focusing on repairs made on the plane at John Wayne Airport, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington said Sunday.

The owner of the twin-engine Piper Aerostar that crashed Friday morning a few minutes after leaving John Wayne had sought repair work there after flying down from Canada, safety board spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said.

The plane’s nose-down dive into the Newport Beach Tennis Club killed the pilot-owner, Anthony Ronald Deis, his wife and their three young children.

“When the plane landed there at John Wayne Airport, it had a problem, and work was done on its right engine,” Lopatkiewicz said. “This of course interests us, and our investigators will be looking into what needed to be fixed.”

Lopatkiewicz said he does not know any details of the repairs, including which facility at the airport did the work.

But an investigator for the Canadian Aviation Safety Board said Sunday that the “repair work” was so minor that essentially nothing was done on the plane while it was at John Wayne.

The investigator, George Heath, told the Edmonton Journal in a telephone interview from Los Angeles that he had examined the work order on Deis’ plane at the airport.

“There was a complaint of an oil leak,” Heath said. “It must have been of a minor nature. There was no real repair work. They checked it over. Ran up the engine and said there was no discrepancy.”

Heath flew to Orange County from Canada on Friday to assist in the crash investigation. In the interview with the Edmonton Journal, Heath declined to say which firm at John Wayne Airport inspected the plane for the suspected oil leak.

Wreckage Reassembled

Heath told the newspaper that the wreckage of the Piper Aerostar was reassembled in a Carson warehouse Sunday. He said that although “there’s not much left” of the plane, most of the engines are still intact and may provide clues.

Tom Deis, the brother of the dead pilot and a police officer in Canada, said Sunday that an oil line on the Piper Aerostar was repaired at John Wayne last Wednesday. Airport officials have confirmed that the plane was repaired but have made no details public.

Anthony Deis, 35, was an experienced private pilot and the millionaire owner of three jewelry stores in the Canadian province of Alberta. He, his wife, Marilyn Aletha, 34, and their daughters--Amanda Lynn, 10, Jaclyn Dawn, 7, and Kimberly Lisa, 5--flew from their home in Camrose, Alberta, on March 22 for a vacation in Southern California. During their stay in Orange County, the family visited Disneyland.

The family was en route back to Canada when the plane crashed. One witness said an engine was backfiring and smoke was spewing from the plane after it took off.

Lopatkiewicz, in Washington, said Sunday that the National Transportation Safety Board probe is being headed by chief investigator Jeff Rich. The investigation will be based out of the Carson warehouse where the plane wreckage was reassembled, Lopatkiewicz added.

Investigation Could Last a Year

Lopatkiewicz said the investigation may take up to a year, including an initial report in about 6 months. “But if we find something about the accident that could help aviation safety in the meantime, we would not hesitate to issue something earlier.”

The Newport Beach Tennis Club opened Sunday for the first time since the crash, and attendance was heavy, said Joey Toma, a club receptionist.

“We’ve had a lot of people today, including our swimmers and a lot of people going into the dining room,” Toma said. “We have 16 of our 19 tennis courts open.”

The remaining courts are those affected by the plane’s crash and explosion. The plane narrowly missed tennis instructor Bernie Mitton and two students.

“Many of the people who came today said they were so sad about the tragedy,” Toma said. “It was such a sad thing, and we’re just fortunate that no one was hurt on the ground.”