On 22 October 1986, the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox played Game Four of the World Series at Fenway Park in Boston. Many in New York were excited about the Mets' first appearance in the Fall Classic since 1969, but the excitement of many radio listeners was tempered that Wednesday afternoon as a live traffic report on WNBC 66 went horribly wrong. At 4:44 that afternoon, during a live report from Jane Dornacker, the N-Copter's transmission disengaged, causing the engine to race while the rotors stalled and plunging the helicopter into the Hudson River. Dornacker's last words over the air, catching stunned listeners (as well as WNBC afternoon man Joey Reynolds) off-guard, were, "Hit the water!" Although the copter did hit the water, Dornacker was killed in the crash.

I have looked around, trying to find a transcript of that fateful report. I couldn't find one, so I decided to write one myself, thanks to the audio clip below. I've never been to New York, so I miss a lot of the specific references in Jane's report (like the Major Deegan (an expressway following I-87 through the Bronx), the Mosholu Parkway (a major thoroughfare in the Bronx), the BQE (which I correctly guessed stands for Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, I-278 through those two boroughs), the LIE (which stands for Long Island Expressway, I-495 running from the Queens-Midtown Tunnel east; the graphic above was designed to honor these two roads and their intersection in Queens), and the Kosciuszko (which is a bridge somewhere on I-278; I had to look up the spelling on that)), and, like my Audio Philes, you do have to trust my hearing, but I think this is pretty accurate. I've included a link to the aircheck as well. It's a scoped aircheck, which means some relatively irrelevant material has been removed (in this case, the song that played after Jane went down; there's just enough of it there for me to identify it).

Joey Reynolds (WNBC studio host):	Okay, here's Jane Dornacker now in the N-Copter.
<synthesized NBC chime>
Jane Dornacker (WNBC traffic reporter) from helicopter:	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 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 LIE. 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 (screaming):	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 in studio 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)>
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 involving the N-Copter into the Hackensack River. Dornacker survived that crash.