Jane Dornacker

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Jane Dornacker (October 1, 1947 in Albuquerque, New Mexico – October 22, 1986 in New York) was an American rock musician, actress, and comedian turned traffic reporter for WNBC 66 AM (which became WFAN 66 in 1987 ). She was married to Bob Knickerbocker.

1 Entertainment career
2 Helicopter crash
- 2.1 Transcript of crash
3 Crash aftermath
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Entertainment career

Leila And The Snakes (front cover).

Leila And The Snakes (back cover).

Jane was the tall, engaging lead singer (Leila), keyboardist, and songwriter of the 1970s/1980s San Francisco "tack" rock group Leila And The Snakes. Pearl Gates and Pamela Wood provided supporting vocals. Their repertoire included "Rock And Roll Weirdos", "Pyramid Power", and a spoof version of Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?". Gates later left the band (and took the band with her) to form Pearl Harbor and The Explosions.

She provided lead vocals on "Christopher Columbus" (1978), a song by R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders. With Ron Nagle, she co-wrote the humorous hit song "Don't Touch Me There" for The Tubes. The song was sung by Re Styles and appeared on The Tubes' second studio album, Young And Rich (1976), and was released as a 7" single in the US, the UK, and Holland. The B-side was "Proud To Be an American". Jane had also toured with The Tubes as a backing singer and dancer.

Dornacker was also an actress. She appeared in playwright Sam Shepard's jazz opera "Inacoma" at San Francisco's Magic Theatre (1977) and was featured in other works by the Overtone Theatre. She appeared in The Stand-Up, Anita Sperm, and as the mysterious Nurse Murch in the film The Right Stuff.

Jane developed a successful career as a stand-up comedian on the San Francisco circuit and did her first work as a traffic reporter for KFRC, a popular radio station. She worked with Dr. Don Rose, who was a popular disc jockey at the time. As she did traffic, she would tell her daughter Naomi to get up and get to school. When Dornacker died, Rose arranged several tributes to help Naomi with college. She moved to New York City to become a much loved raspy-voiced "trafficologist" and "Jane-in-a-plane".

[edit] Helicopter crash

On October 22, 1986, at 4:44 PM, while Dornacker was giving one of the station's N-Copter traffic reports, the helicopter plunged from an altitude of roughly 75 feet into the Hudson River. On her final radio broadcast she was giving a report of a tractor trailer and a car getting into an accident and a car fire. She also stated that the outbound Holland Tunnel was heavy with traffic and that the Lincoln Tunnel was much better with traffic and a car fire. Dornacker was starting her report for incoming New Jersey traffic when the helicopter stalled in mid broadcast. The following is a transcript of the last minutes of her live broadcast in which the crash occurred:

[edit] Transcript of crash

Joey Reynolds (WNBC studio host): 'Kay, here's Jane Dornacker now in the N-Copter.
<brief synthesized NBC chime>
Jane Dornacker (WNBC N-Copter traffic reporter): Thank you very much, Joey. There was indeed an accident southbound on the Major Deegan at the Mosholu Parkway. An accident, a serious accident involving a tractor trailer and a car. It has been pushed off to the shoulder, but now watch out there now because, uh, another flatbed truck is going to have to come to clear it, so yield right-of-way. Northbound on the BQE, we've spotted that disabled vehicle in the right-hand lane before the Kosciuszko, not causing much of a backup, but further northbound there on the BQE, traffic is very heavy, past the Kosciuszko all the way over to the L.I.E.. The outbound Holland Tunnel extra-heavy for you right now; earlier there was a car fire at Hudson and Canal Street. It has been cleared out, except heading to New Jersey, the outbound Lincoln Tunnel looks a lot better for you. In New Jersey <gasp> ...
<sound in background of helicopter engine racing, then slowing down>
Jane Dornacker (panicking): Hit the water! Hit THE WATER! HIT THE WATER!!!
<signal from helicopter cuts out>
<there is dead air for five seconds>
Joey Reynolds: Okay, we're going to play some, uh, some music here, I think.
<background voice (Jay Sorensen), who was running the studio control board) says, "Yeah, mm-hm.">
Joey Reynolds: And find out what's going on with the helicopter, because something happened there.
<while Reynolds continues, background voice in studio says, "Come in, N-Copter.">
Joey Reynolds: It's, uh, quarter of five, 16 'til five on WNBC on the Joey Reynolds Show.
<music starts up>
Joey Reynolds (over music): We're taking an N-Copter report from Jane Dornacker. <pause> Let's check in, and see how they're doing there, and then we'll come right back at you.
<song plays (the song was "Hip To Be Square", by Huey Lewis & The News) >

. . .

<song continues>

. . .

Joey Reynolds (as song ends): I hope nothing happened with Jane. We had, uh, a helicopter report, from the N-Copter. Of course, you know, once before, we had this happen, a few months ago, she went down in the, uh, in the drink. Not she, I mean, she has a, uh, pilot. Jane is, uh, ...
<other voice in studio says, "...well, until we find out what's going on, we'll just ...">
Joey Reynolds: ...Jane was up there just now giving us a report, and <sounding more upbeat> sometimes it just gets cut off, too, you know. It's just an electronic thing. But this time she said, uh, "Hit the water," or something like that. So we're going to find out what's going on there, so stay tuned. We hope nothing ... <pause> ...say a little prayer, hope nothing's, nothing's wrong. That's really a ... <deep breath> ...that's a hard, hard job.

Note: Reynolds's reference to Jane going down "in the drink" refers to an earlier crash (with another pilot) in April involving the N-Copter into the Hackensack River. On that previous occasion, the helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff from Teterboro Airport. Dornacker kept talking on air as their aircraft struck the water. She survived that crash with only minor injuries.

This transcript was taken from [1] Jason Elliot Benda who transcribed it himself after not finding a transcript.

[edit] Crash aftermath

The helicopter nosedived, struck the top of a chain link fence at a river pier, crashed into the Hudson River very near to the Manhattan shore and sank in 15 to 20 feet of water. Both occupants were trapped for nearly 10-15 minutes before help arrived. Jane Dornacker died on her way to Saint Vincent's Hospital. She was 39 years old. Her pilot and only other occupant, Bill Pate, was severely injured but survived. In the subsequent investigation, the NTSB found that the sprag clutch that was installed in the helicopter (on lease to WNBC Radio) was a military surplus part which was not designed for use in a civilian aircraft, and that the part had not been adequately lubricated. It directly led to a mid-air seizure of the main rotor blades. The staff of WNBC were so appalled at the revelation of this malpractice that at one point they threatened to resign en masse.

Dornacker's then 16-year-old daughter, Naomi, received $325,000 in a settlement with the owner and maker of the helicopter. What made Dornacker's death even more tragic is that Naomi's father Bob Knickerbocker died shortly before her mother's death.