Jane Dornacker
Encyclopedia
Jane Dornacker was an American
rock musician
, actress, and comedienne turned traffic reporter.
In 1986, while working for WNBC 660 AM Radio
in New York City
(which became WFAN
in 1988), Dornacker was aboard during two unrelated crashes of the helicopters leased to WNBC. She survived the first crash, but was killed in the second crash into the Hudson River
, which occurred as she was in the middle of a live traffic report. Her death came shortly after that of her husband, Bob Knickerbocker, orphaning their 16-year-old daughter. The NTSB investigation determined the cause of the fatal crash to have been use of improper parts and poor maintenance on the part of Spectrum Helicopters of Ridgefield Park, New Jersey
.
. 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 (and took the band with her) to form Pearl Harbor and the Explosions. Guitarist Miles Corbin went on to form the surf instrumental band the Aqua Velvets.
Dornacker 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.
Dornacker developed a successful career as a stand-up comic on the San Francisco circuit and did her first work as a traffic reporter in the early-mid-1980s for KFRC
, a popular Top 40 radio station. She worked with Don Rose
, who was that station's morning disc jockey
at the time. She was noted for her exceptionally fast speech, so fast it required concentration to understand her. As she did traffic, she would tell her daughter Naomi to get up and get to school. She moved to New York City
to become a much-loved, raspy-voiced "trafficologist" and "Jane-in-a-plane." After Dornacker died, Rose arranged several tributes to establish a college fund for Naomi.
On April 18, 1986, Dornacker was reporting from a WNBC helicopter over the Hackensack River
in New Jersey
when the aircraft crashed into the river. She and the pilot survived and were able to swim to shore.
On October 22, 1986, at 4:44 PM, while Dornacker was giving one of the station's N-Copter traffic reports during the Joey Reynolds
Show on WNBC Radio
in New York City
, the Enstrom F-28
helicopter she was reporting from plunged into the Hudson River
from an altitude of roughly 75 feet. On her final radio broadcast she was giving a report of an accident involving a tractor-trailer and a car as well as 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 suffered mechanical failure in mid broadcast and crashed. Her last words were "Hit the water, hit the water, hit the water!"
The F-28 helicopter nose-dived, 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. Dornacker died on her way to Saint Vincent's Hospital. She was 39 years old. Her pilot and the 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, which was on lease to WNBC Radio by Spectrum Helicopters of Ridgefield Park, New Jersey
, 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 blade
s. The staff of WNBC were so appalled at the revelation of this malpractice at Spectrum Helicopters that at one point they threatened to resign en masse.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
rock musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, actress, and comedienne turned traffic reporter.
In 1986, while working for WNBC 660 AM Radio
WNBC (AM)
WNBC was a radio station that operated in New York City from 1922 to 1988. For most of its history, it was the flagship station of the NBC Radio Network...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
(which became WFAN
WFAN
WFAN , also known as "Sports Radio 66" or "The FAN", is a radio station in New York City. The station broadcasts on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio...
in 1988), Dornacker was aboard during two unrelated crashes of the helicopters leased to WNBC. She survived the first crash, but was killed in the second crash into the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
, which occurred as she was in the middle of a live traffic report. Her death came shortly after that of her husband, Bob Knickerbocker, orphaning their 16-year-old daughter. The NTSB investigation determined the cause of the fatal crash to have been use of improper parts and poor maintenance on the part of Spectrum Helicopters of Ridgefield Park, New Jersey
Ridgefield Park, New Jersey
Ridgefield Park is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The population was 12,729 at the 2010 United States Census. Of 566 municipalities statewide, Ridgefield Park is only one of three with a village type of government in New Jersey, along with Loch Arbour and Ridgewood.The...
.
Entertainment career
Dornacker was the tall lead singer (Leila), keyboardist, and songwriter of the 1970s/1980s San Francisco "tack" rock group Leila and the SnakesLeila And The Snakes
Leila And The Snakes was a rock group based out of San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s. The lead singer of the group was Jane Dornacker, who went under the name of Leila. Dornacker has previously toured with the group The Tubes. Other members of the group were Pamela Wood on the bass and Scott...
. 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?
Is That All There Is?
"Is That All There Is?" is a song written by American songwriting team Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller during the 1960s. It became a hit for American singer Peggy Lee from her recording in November 1969...
" Gates later left (and took the band with her) to form Pearl Harbor and the Explosions. Guitarist Miles Corbin went on to form the surf instrumental band the Aqua Velvets.
Dornacker provided lead vocals on "Christopher Columbus" (1978), a song by R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders
R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders
R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders are a string band playing songs from, and in the style of, the 1920s. Their three 33⅓ rpm albums, all recorded in the 1970s on the Blue Goose label, were titled R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders , R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders No. 2 , and R....
. With Ron Nagle, she co-wrote the humorous hit song "Don't Touch Me There" for The Tubes
The Tubes
The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band, whose 1975 debut album included the hit single, "White Punks on Dope". During its first fifteen years or so, the band's live performances combined quasi-pornography with wild satires of media, consumerism, and politics...
. 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
Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...
's jazz opera Inacoma at San Francisco's Magic Theatre
Magic Theatre
The Magic Theatre is a theatre company founded in 1967, presently based at the historic Fort Mason Center on San Francisco's northern waterfront...
(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.
Dornacker developed a successful career as a stand-up comic on the San Francisco circuit and did her first work as a traffic reporter in the early-mid-1980s for KFRC
KFRC (defunct)
KFRC was a radio station in San Francisco, California in the United States, which made its first broadcast on Wednesday, September 24, 1924, from studios in the Hotel Whitcomb 1231 Market Street. KFRC originally broadcast with 50 watts on the 270 meter wavelength , then moved to 660 kHz. in...
, a popular Top 40 radio station. She worked with Don Rose
Don Rose
Don Rose Don Rose Don Rose (born Donald Rosenberg- also known as Dr. Don Rose or just Dr. Don (July 5, 1934 – March 30, 2005) was an American radio personality on KFRC AM 610 in San Francisco, California from October 1973 to 1986. Prior to joining KFRC, Rose had been a prominent broadcaster...
, who was that station's morning disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
at the time. She was noted for her exceptionally fast speech, so fast it required concentration to understand her. As she did traffic, she would tell her daughter Naomi to get up and get to school. She moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to become a much-loved, raspy-voiced "trafficologist" and "Jane-in-a-plane." After Dornacker died, Rose arranged several tributes to establish a college fund for Naomi.
Helicopter crashes
Dornacker is notable for surviving one helicopter crash only to die in a second helicopter crash in the same year.On April 18, 1986, Dornacker was reporting from a WNBC helicopter over the Hackensack River
Hackensack River
The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 miles long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the suburban area outside New York City just west of the lower Hudson River,...
in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
when the aircraft crashed into the river. She and the pilot survived and were able to swim to shore.
On October 22, 1986, at 4:44 PM, while Dornacker was giving one of the station's N-Copter traffic reports during the Joey Reynolds
Joey Reynolds
Joey Reynolds is the pseudonym of Joey Pinto, host of the U.S. radio program The Joey Reynolds Show via the WOR Radio Network. Reynolds' broadcasting career started on TV- in Buffalo at WGR TV 2...
Show on WNBC Radio
WFAN
WFAN , also known as "Sports Radio 66" or "The FAN", is a radio station in New York City. The station broadcasts on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the Enstrom F-28
Enstrom F-28
|-See also:-References:*-External links:* *...
helicopter she was reporting from plunged into the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
from an altitude of roughly 75 feet. On her final radio broadcast she was giving a report of an accident involving a tractor-trailer and a car as well as a car fire. She also stated that the outbound Holland Tunnel
Holland Tunnel
The Holland Tunnel is a highway tunnel under the Hudson River connecting the island of Manhattan in New York City with Jersey City, New Jersey at Interstate 78 on the mainland. Unusual for an American public works project, it is not named for a government official, politician, or local hero or...
was heavy with traffic and that the Lincoln Tunnel
Lincoln Tunnel
The Lincoln Tunnel is a long tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey and the borough of Manhattan in New York City.-History:...
was much better with traffic and a car fire. Dornacker was starting her report for incoming New Jersey traffic when the helicopter suffered mechanical failure in mid broadcast and crashed. Her last words were "Hit the water, hit the water, hit the water!"
The F-28 helicopter nose-dived, 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. Dornacker died on her way to Saint Vincent's Hospital. She was 39 years old. Her pilot and the only other occupant, Bill Pate, was severely injured but survived.
In the subsequent investigation, the NTSB found that the sprag clutch
Sprag
A sprag clutch is a one-way freewheel clutch. It resembles a roller bearing, but instead of cylindrical rollers, non-revolving asymmetric figure-of-eight shaped sprags are used...
that was installed in the helicopter, which was on lease to WNBC Radio by Spectrum Helicopters of Ridgefield Park, New Jersey
Ridgefield Park, New Jersey
Ridgefield Park is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The population was 12,729 at the 2010 United States Census. Of 566 municipalities statewide, Ridgefield Park is only one of three with a village type of government in New Jersey, along with Loch Arbour and Ridgewood.The...
, 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 blade
Helicopter rotor
A helicopter main rotor or rotor system is a type of fan that is used to generate both the aerodynamic lift force that supports the weight of the helicopter, and thrust which counteracts aerodynamic drag in forward flight...
s. The staff of WNBC were so appalled at the revelation of this malpractice at Spectrum Helicopters that at one point they threatened to resign en masse.
Final crash transcript
Aircheck of the incidentCrash aftermath
- Dornacker's then 16-year-old daughter, Naomi, received $325,000 in a settlement with owner Spectrum Helicopters of Ridgefield Park, NJ, and the maker of the helicopter. Naomi's father Bob Knickerbocker died shortly before her mother's death.
- All the New York stations grounded their traffic helicopters for a few days after that accident.
- A memorial concert in celebration of Jane took place at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco on Saturday, November 22, 1986.
- There is a memorial to her in Wayne, New JerseyWayne, New JerseyWayne is a Township in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States, located less than from midtown Manhattan. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township had a total population of 54,069....
, where Dornacker and her family lived.
- Shortly after the incident several on-air interviews with WNBC Radio staff describe the incident and their feelings in detail, including how other news organizations "pumped news" into the WNBC Radio newsroom as they were all in shock. Joey Reynolds broke down on-air when talking about her now orphaned child. WNBC played other interviews with friends and recordings of her talking about the first helicopter crash earlier that same year. Her music was also played during these tribute shows including "Don't Touch Me There" which she wrote for The Tubes.