Plane Crashes Near Tennis Club : Accident: Out-of-control aircraft narrowly misses spectators watching a tourney at Monarch Beach facility.

An airplane that ran out of fuel Sunday afternoon narrowly missed scores of spectators watching a tennis tournament at a private club before it crashed on a road about a mile east of the Ritz-Carlton hotel near Coast Highway.

Orange County sheriff’s officials said the single-engine Cessna was en route to Fullerton Municipal Airport from Brown Field near the U.S.-Mexico border when the pilot ran out of fuel about 2:15 p.m. and attempted an emergency landing on Niguel Road near the the Tennis Club at Monarch Beach, a private tennis and golf club about a mile inland from the Pacific Ocean.

The four-seater plane was nearly destroyed by the impact. A wing was sheared off and it sustained major damage to its wheels and nose, Sheriff’s Lt. Jay Mendez said.

The three people on board walked out of the wreckage and were treated at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center for minor cuts, a hospital official said. Pilot Ronnie Lester Beckemeyer, 46, of Visalia was going to be kept overnight at Mission Hospital, sheriff’s officials said. His wife, Carol, 39, and the other passenger, Brian Paulino, 23, of Inglewood, were treated and released.

At the club, scores of players, spectators and their guests were watching the finals for a men’s tournament while more than 80 golfers were on the club’s 18-hole golf course, said Dick Bohrnstedt, the club’s director of tennis.

Dan Brown, 22, a valet at the club, was carrying two golf bags out for two British golfers when he noticed that the airplane had banked and was coming toward him and the golfers.

“We couldn’t figure out what he was trying to do, but by the time I saw him turn and head for us, the plane was 10 to 15 feet above my head! We ducked!” Brown said.

The single-engine airplane bounced 100 feet from the club’s front entrance then skidded and crashed as its left wing clipped a palm tree in the median of the street.

Brown and other eyewitnesses said the plane had lost power and was “floating” down before it crashed.

The crash disrupted a men’s tennis final, said Bohrnstedt, who was perched above the spectator seating while he umpired.

“I was sitting over there on that chair, when I looked up and I noticed this plane was going lower and lower. It was heading right toward the clubhouse,” he said. “I didn’t know it was in trouble until it made a sharp left to avoid hitting some condominiums, then it disappeared behind the clubhouse building. The next thing we heard was the crash.”

Club manager Chris Nicholson was outside the clubhouse with valet Gary Barker when they both saw the airplane flying in over the coast above the Ritz-Carlton hotel, “heading for the clubhouse.”

“I was standing out front, talking to Gary when we both saw the plane,” Nicholson said. “The engine had stopped, you could see the propeller wasn’t moving and the plane was about tree-top height heading for the club.

“I was thinking, which way should I go for cover.

“It went right over our pool, teetering all the way. It was coming right toward the club, and I was thinking, ‘Omigod, what if this thing hits me.’ It was coming in really, really low. We knew it would crash.”

After the plane crashed, club members ran outside, assisted the pilot and helped pull the two passengers from the wreckage. There was no fire.