Copter Crash Kills Traffic Reporter, Pilot

A traffic reporter who had been troubled by last month’s death of a New York City newswoman in a helicopter crash was killed Tuesday when her radio station’s copter smashed into trees in dense fog.

Unlike the New York crash that killed WNBC traffic reporter Jane Dornacker, Nancy McCormick of WKRC was not broadcasting live at the time.

The turbine-powered, five-seat Bell Jet Ranger helicopter, leased by WKRC, went down on a muddy hillside about two miles from Lunken Airport, not long before federal air traffic controllers suspended landings because of the fog, police spokesman Howard Nichols said.

Pilot Dan Gould, 31, of Dayton, also was killed.

Wreckage Found in Preserve

The impact left small pieces of wreckage dangling in the trees in the California Nature Preserve, on the east side of the city. The victims’ bodies were found on the hillside about 100 feet apart.

Lt. Thomas Oberschmidt refused to speculate on the cause of the crash, saying his department would await results of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation. The wreckage was impounded by Federal Aviation Administration officials.

McCormick, 26, of Fort Thomas, Ky., had been a traffic reporter at WKRC for 3 1/2 years. Officials at the station said that she was studying aviation and had thought about becoming a pilot.

The Oct. 22 death of Dornacker, whose craft went down in the Hudson River, caused McCormick concern but not enough to keep her from continuing the reports, WKRC newscaster Vicky Lynn said.

That crash “kind of got to her a little, but she was a strong person, she didn’t express her fears,” Lynn said. “But it’s always a concern, any time you’re in a situation like that, I think.”