Deputies release names of two people killed in homemade airplane crash in Orleans County

ORLEANS COUNTY, N.Y. — Orleans County deputies have identified the two people who died after their homemade airplane fell apart and crashed Sunday.

The passenger was Morris Wortman, 72 of Rochester. He was a once prominent OB-GYN accused of using his own sperm to impregnate a woman after telling her she would get sperm from an anonymous donor.

The Orleans County Sheriff’s Office says a call for a plane going down came in at 5:42 p.m. on Sunday. Deputies and responding fire departments found the plane behind a house, west of Townline Road in the Town of Ridgeway.

Plane parts were found on the east side of the road, at least 1,000 yards away from the plane. The sheriff says it looks like the experimental plane came apart.

“It appears that it was a catastrophic mechanical failure that caused the plane to come apart,” he said.        

Deputies are working with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate the crash. Right now, they believe the wings of the plane became detached and fell into an orchard. The plane then continued another 1,000 to 1,500 yards before crashing into a pasture.

Deputies and the NTSB will be at the scene of the crash on Tuesday.