A fertility doctor accused of using his own sperm to impregnate several of his patients died after a hand-built aircraft he was aboard crashed.

Dr Morris Wortman, 72, was riding an experimental Wittman W-5 Buttercup plane that ripped apart in the middle of a flight and plummeted onto a pasture in Orleans County in western New York on Sunday.

‘The wings of the aircraft became detached from the fuselage and fell to the ground in an orchard,’ stated Sheriff Christopher Bourke on Monday. 

Preliminary findings showed that the main body of the plane traveled another 1,000 to 1,500 yards before hitting the ground.

The pilot, Earl Luce Jr of Brockport, also died, Bourke said. Luce had spoken highly about constructing the replica airplane by hand online.

Wortman, of Rochester, was a prominent obstetrician/gynecologist in the area. He made headlines in the 1990s as an abortion provider and was often attacked by anti-abortion activists.

Over the past year-and-a-half, multiple people accused Wortman of impregnating patients with his sperm after they sought fertility treatment in the 1980s.

Geneseo resident Morgan Hellquist, the daughter of one of Wortman’s patients who got pregnant in the 1980s, sued him in 2021. The lawsuit alleges that Wortman told the falsely told the patient that the sperm donor was a medical student, but that he used his own sperm instead. Wortman concealed the truth even after the patient’s daughter became his patient, according to the suit.

Hellquist claimed that Wortman engaged in ‘gross, wanton and willful fraud’ and that his alleged actions were ‘shocks’ to conscience.

Her lawsuit remains pending in Monroe County Court. Wortman did not comment on the suit when it was filed.

The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday continued to investigate the crash, and the Federal Aviation Administration is also involved in a probe.

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