Traffic Up There Too : Eyes in the Sky Dare Not Blink

Pamela McInnes nosed the KMPC Airwatch airplane north toward the Santa Ana Freeway, banked right at Anaheim Stadium and headed over the Orange Freeway to check out an accident.

Just north of the Lambert Road overpass in Brea, she saw it: The Highway Patrol was clearing a three-car collision that had southbound commuters backed up for two miles.

Peering through purple-tinted sunglasses, McInnes circled the area, scrawled notes on a stenographer’s note pad in her lap, then headed toward Norwalk to investigate a jackknifed tractor-trailer rig on the Santa Ana Freeway near the Carmenita Road overpass.

Normal Traffic

Above the din of the red-and-white, single-engine Cardinal, McInnes observed that it was a normal morning for Southland traffic. As she informed KMPC listeners in her crisp, no-nonsense New Zealand accent a few minutes later:

“We still have problems on the Santa Ana Freeway northbound around Carmenita. . . . On the Pomona Freeway westbound, approaching that interchange, they’re clearing two separate problems. . . . Over on the Westside. . . . “

Elsewhere in the skies above Los Angeles and Orange counties’ more than 600 miles of freeway, five other airborne traffic reporters spoke to their own work-bound constituencies.

But while beleaguered motorists may envy these airborne men and women flying above it all at 100-plus m.p.h., their job is not stress free, particularly for those traffic reporters who pilot their own aircraft through some of the busiest skies in the nation.

Balancing Act

For Los Angeles’ three pilot-traffic reporters, who log more than 500 air miles during their split morning and afternoon shifts, it is a balancing act between two jobs: They fly, listening to their aircraft radio and watching out for other air traffic. And they broadcast, monitoring California Highway Patrol and police radio frequencies, talking to their newsrooms, listening for radio cues and delivering up to eight traffic reports an hour.

All the while, they keep a close eye on the traffic below.

Said “Commander” Chuck Street, helicopter pilot-traffic reporter for KIIS-FM, about the demands of his job: “It is stressful. When I get down at the end of the shift, I need to sit down and unwind.”

The danger was illustrated by the death June 4, 1986, of veteran KFI-AM/KOST-FM pilot-reporter Bruce Wayne, whose single-engine Cardinal crashed shortly after takeoff from Fullerton Airport. Wayne, considered the nation’s dean of flying traffic reporters, died exactly one month before his 25th anniversary as an airborne traffic reporter.

His crash, moreover, was not an isolated incident. Nationwide in 1986, a total of six accidents occurred involving flying traffic reporters, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

In fact, a spokesman for the independent federal agency describes 1986 as the worst year ever for flying traffic reporters in both the number of crashes and fatalities.

The accidents spurred many stations nationwide to re-examine their commitment to using airborne traffic reporters and to weigh the risks against the advantages: providing what they perceive as the best method of covering traffic conditions and, in the process, gaining a competitive edge over those stations that do not provide the airborne service.

Of the five stations whose traffic reporters were involved in crashes last year, all but two have resumed their airborne service and one of those two stations expects to have a traffic reporter in the air again by the end of the year.

While they express concern over pilot and reporter safety, most radio station officials do not consider airborne traffic reporting an unusually risky business, given seasoned pilots and well-maintained aircraft.

Still, the risk exists, particularly for flying traffic reporters over the skies of Los Angeles, where a record 51 near-collisions between aircraft have been reported over the Los Angeles Basin in the last year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

McInnes said about once a week she finds another aircraft flying “uncomfortably close” to her; about once a month she discovers an aircraft “ real uncomfortably close.”

‘It’s Part of the Job’

How close?

“Like enough to make you burst into tears and hide in the Valley for a half-hour,” McInnes said. She nevertheless shrugs off these unreported incidents: “It’s part of the job. There are risks, and you try to minimize them whether they’re mechanical or aeronautical.”

Leo Galanis of the National Broadcast Pilots Assn. said pilot and reporter safety is a major concern of the 73-member organization he founded in 1986 to enable television and radio pilots to share technical and safety information.

Galanis, a television news pilot for KWTV in Oklahoma City, estimates there are about 100 television helicopter pilots and about 100 airborne traffic reporters in the nation.

“It’s a competitive business, and pilots in many cases get a lot of pressure from management to perform and fly when the weather is not particularly good, particularly when someone in the same market is flying,” said Galanis, adding that one of the goals of the association “is to get the pilots to start communicating with each other in their respective markets so instead of making a bad decision, they can start making the decision of jointly not flying.”

McInnes, who is typical of Los Angeles’ flying traffic reporters, said she never has been pressured to fly in bad weather. She remains on the ground about 20 days a year, usually in the morning because of low clouds, she said.

“The station leaves it entirely up to me,” said McInnes, 39, a 10-year veteran who also reports for KUTE-FM. “The more experience you get, the less likely you’ll go up. I know I don’t fly in conditions I used to fly in.”

Despite working for competing radio stations, Los Angeles area airborne traffic reporters are a close-knit fraternity. They often chat with one another while in the air, share traffic and weather information and take turns playing host to a monthly brunch in their hangars where, in McInnes’ words, they discuss everything from “flying problems to people problems.”

The spate of crashes last year--particularly the death of Wayne--caused them to reflect on the potential hazards of their profession.

“I think you can’t help but do it, especially with Bruce flying the same sort of plane as I fly,” McInnes said. “But you still go back to work. I think in a way it makes you safer. It reminds you that it is a dangerous profession and to keep your head up.”

Said Street, 36: “It does get you in touch with your own mortality; there’s no doubt about that. At this point I’m willing to put up with the danger. I like the job; it’s challenging and satisfying.”

John McElhinney, 62, former KMPC pilot-traffic reporter who is now a TV weatherman in Salem, Ore., offers this perspective:

“It’s one of those jobs you do that you enjoy tremendously, but at times it has its seconds of sheer terror. I had a mechanical problem one time over the Hollywood Bowl and made a forced landing in the Universal Studio parking lot. That didn’t do a whole hell of a lot to my morale at the time.”

Safety is of paramount importance to Paul Johnson, operations director of Metro Traffic Control, a traffic-reporting network that furnishes information to 16 Southern California radio stations.

The company, which operates in 19 other cities around the country, provides pilots to fly its three Los Angeles airborne traffic reporters. Jorge Jarrin reports for KABC-AM and Judy Able for KNX-AM and KJLH-FM. Jim Thornton, who reported for KPWR-FM, was recently promoted to a studio anchor position and has not yet been replaced.

‘Much Safer That Way’

“We think it is much safer that way,” Johnson said. “I think it’s hard to do both at once--look at a traffic problem and fly an airplane. It’s better to keep your attention focused on one area.”

Johnson added that if the pilots or reporters have any doubts regarding weather or mechanical conditions of the aircraft, “I’ve always told them, don’t go up.”

McElhinney, who quit KMPC in 1982 after undergoing open-heart surgery, said: “The industry has lost a lot of people where pilots made some grave errors in judgment. I think the bulk of us who were in it and came out of it all right like to think we had better judgment than that.”

Still, he admitted, there were times, such as in bad weather, when he should not have flown.

Despite the possible dangers involved in providing airborne traffic reports, radio station officials employing the overhead traffic watchers--and the pilot-reporters themselves--believe it is worth the risk.

As they see it, keeping listeners informed of freeway trouble is one of the most valuable public services a radio station can provide, especially in Los Angeles and Orange counties where as many as 750,000 vehicles clog the freeways on a typical weekday morning.

And like covering any news story, they feel, it is better to have a reporter on the scene than delivering a second-hand report from a studio.

Howard Neal, general manager of KFI, where Wayne worked for 15 years, said that after Wayne’s death, “there really never was a question of whether we wanted to continue that service.”

The station, which named its traffic information-gathering system the Bruce Wayne Traffic Center in honor of the veteran pilot, last August hired Mike Nolan, 37, formerly a pilot-traffic reporter in Phoenix and San Francisco.

Lois Wayne, Bruce Wayne’s widow who was writing a book on the history of flying traffic reporters at the time of her husband’s death, said: “Bruce felt strongly about the profession of airborne traffic reporter and felt there wasn’t any way a man or woman sitting in a studio can possibly have their scope of vision of the traffic picture.”

‘Devastated Us All’

But WNBC radio in New York City has been delivering traffic reports from the studio since the death last October of reporter Jane Dornacker. News director Doug O’Brien said the death of Dornacker, a highly respected and popular newswoman, “devastated us all.”

“The company policy will be not to fly again,” he said. “We have come up with a viable alternative, and one I think is better. We actively encourage listeners with cellular (car) phones to call in on a special telephone number, and we put them on the radio. There’s no better credibility than somebody actually stuck in a traffic problem to tell you about it, and it’s obviously more personable.”

California Highway Patrol Officer Ernie Garcia, who delivers morning traffic reports for 16 radio stations from the CHP’s communications center in downtown Los Angeles, praises airborne traffic reporters for doing “a good job.” But he believes traffic information can be provided just as well by the CHP from the ground as from a reporter in the air--with one exception.

“After a major incident, oftentimes when we provide alternate routes, those routes also become congested,” he said. “At that time it would be nice to have an air unit leading the motorists. I’m talking about accidents of major proportions. Other than that when there is a major accident, not only do we tell the motoring public (about the accident) but we offer alternate routes.”

While they acknowledge their reliance on the CHP traffic information, pilot-traffic reporters insist that is not enough.

“I can’t tell you you how many times we’ve gotten information from the Highway Patrol about possible problems that either weren’t there or were far worse than reported or at a different location,” said Nolan, who reports for both KFI and KOST-FM. “The only way you can tell is by being there.”

Bill Keene, traffic reporter and weatherman for KNX-AM, said it is not a case of airborne traffic reports being better than those from the ground.

‘A Little Bit of Both’

“It’s a case of it’s part of the package. It’s not complete either way,” said the studio-bound Keene. “I don’t think you can cover it entirely from the air or entirely from the ground. You have to have a little bit of both.”

Pilot-reporters in a top radio market such as Los Angeles typically make between $50,000 and $70,000 a year, depending on ratings and how well established the pilot-reporter is. Traffic reporters who do not pilot their own aircraft may make between $20,000 and $30,000 a year in a market the size of Los Angeles.

The role of the flying traffic reporter extends beyond merely reporting traffic conditions. Whenever major fires, floods or earthquakes strike the Southland, they are on the scene.

McElhinney recalled those occasions as among the most memorable of his 10 years as an airborne traffic reporter.

Despite the job pressures, which in retrospect he thinks did take a toll, McElhinney said that if it had not been for his heart problem, he would never have quit.

“I’d still be giving her hell and loving every minute of it,” he said. “I found it to be a very rewarding thing, and I thought that I was making a contribution.”

ACCIDENTS AMONG FLYING TRAFFIC REPORTERS Since the National Transportation Safety Board began keeping statistics in 1975, there have been 27 accidents involving flying traffic reporters, resulting in 14 deaths and 14 serious injuries. Reports on 21 of the accidents list “pilot involvement” as the probable cause of 11; mechanical problems in nine; one was of undetermined cause.

The safety board calls 1986 the worst year for flying traffic reporters: six crashes and six fatalities.

April 18--A helicopter carrying Jane Dornacker, traffic reporter for WNBC radio in New York City, crashed in New Jersey’s Hackensack River just after takeoff. Dornacker and the pilot, Bob Banes, swam to safety, but Dornacker grounded herself for two months.

April 25--Portland, Ore., radio station KEX’s “Air Watch” chopper lost power and crashed on a freeway on-ramp. The $85,000 chopper was damaged beyond repair; the reporter and pilot were shaken but unhurt.

June 4--Bruce Wayne, veteran pilot-traffic reporter for KFI-AM and KOST-FM in Los Angeles, died in a crash shortly after his single-engine Cardinal took off from Fullerton Airport.

June 16--Viewers of Florida television’s “Good Morning Jacksonville” witnessed “Chopper 12” spin out of control seconds before it crashed into a wooded lot. WTLV-TV traffic reporter Julie King Silvers and pilot William (Buddy) Smith were killed. Cameraman Bret Snyder underwent surgery for internal injuries and broken bones.

Oct. 22--Listeners to WNBC radio heard traffic reporter Dornacker scream, “Hit the water!” during a live broadcast. Dornacker was killed when her helicopter plunged into the Hudson River. The pilot, Bill Pate, survived but was critically injured.

Nov. 25--Cincinnati traffic reporter Nancy McCormick of radio station WKRC, who was said to have been troubled by Dornacker’s death, was killed when the turbine-powered Bell Jet Ranger helicopter she was flying in crashed into trees in a dense fog. Pilot Dan Gould was also killed.

All six accidents are under investigation. In Dornacker’s case, the FAA issued an emergency order to revoke the helicopter mechanic’s license for failing to install a pulley and clutch assembly. The FAA revoked Richfield Park, N.J.-based Spectrum Helicopters’ license to carry passengers.