Crash on Ky. golf course leaves co-pilot dead

A rescue worker said the pilot was injured but able to walk.
FLORENCE, Ky. (AP) -- An airplane carrying overnight delivery packages crashed on a golf course early Friday less than a mile from its planned landing at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, killing the co-pilot, authorities said.
Law enforcement officers found the pilot sitting on a bench by a fairway, and he was taken to a hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, authorities said.
The pilot, whose name was not released, appeared shaken but was able to stand up and walk, said Kelly Aylor, a fire commander for Boone County.
The pilot of the twin-engine, Convair 580 turboprop plane flying from Memphis, Tenn., reported engine trouble about 12:50 a.m., just before the crash, said the National Transportation Safety Board, the federal agency investigating the crash.
The plane was carrying overnight delivery packages under contract to the DHL delivery company, airport spokesman Ted Bushelman said. Air Tahoma, the plane's owner, was operating under contract to DHL, he said.
The co-pilot was identified as Michael Ray Gelwicks, 36, Boone County Coroner Doug Stith said.
The plane went down less than a mile from Interstate 75 and the Florence Mall, a major regional shopping center in northern Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.
Police cordoned off the stand of trees where the plane came to rest. The trees separate the golf course from a road.
"It's in pieces. The tail section with DHL on it is intact," Bushelman said.
Authorities recovered the plane's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder and flew them to Washington on a government plane for examination by the safety board, agency spokesman Paul Schlamm said at the scene.
The co-pilot's body was found after daybreak, Bushelman said.
The pilot was doing OK and was at University Hospital in Cincinnati for observation, said Chris Trott, spokesman for Air Tahoma. Both people are from the Memphis area, he said. The hospital refused to give the pilot's condition.
Air Tahoma, based at Rickenbacker Airport in central Ohio, is a contractor for Plantation, Fla.-based DHL air cargo company and owns 13 other planes, Trott said.
Bushelman wouldn't comment on any conversation the pilot may have had with air traffic controllers.
The FBI maintained security at the site until daybreak to keep the wreckage intact until investigators arrived, Bushelman said.
Bushelman said he knew of no delays for any commercial flights at the airport, which closed the runway where the plane was to land for four hours after the crash. The airport, which has three runways, mostly handles cargo flights at that time of morning.