A New York fertility doctor who was accused of using his own sperm to impregnate several patients died when the hand-built airplane he was in fell apart mid-flight and crashed, authorities said.
Dr Morris Wortman, 72, of Rochester, was a passenger in the experimental aircraft that went down on Sunday in a pasture in Orleans county. The pilot, Earl Luce Jr, of Brockport, also was killed, the county sheriff said.
The crash of the aircraft, identified by the National Transportation Safety Board as a Wittman W-5 Buttercup, remains under investigation.
Preliminary findings indicated that “the wings of the aircraft became detached from the fuselage and fell to the ground in an orchard”, the sheriff, Christopher Bourke, said in a news release. The fuselage continued west for another 1,000 to 1,500 yards before crashing.
Wortman was a well-known doctor in western New York who was often the target of anti-abortion protesters.
He was sued in 2021 by the daughter of one of his patients, who became pregnant in the 1980s.
The lawsuit said the doctor secretly used his own sperm while telling the patient the donor had been a local medical student. It said the doctor kept the secret even after the daughter, his biological offspring, became his gynecology patient.
The daughter discovered Wortman was the donor after DNA tests revealed she had at least nine half-siblings, her medical malpractice suit said.
The civil suit, which is pending in Monroe county court, said follow-up DNA testing with Wortman’s daughter from his first marriage confirmed the genetic link.
Wortman did not comment when the lawsuit was filed.
English (US)