TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Daughter Still Coming To Grips With Dad's Death In Plane Crash

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARK  DOUGLAS | News Channel 8

Published: February 20, 2009

War hero Clay Yarber hated to fly — and no wonder. He was twice shot down during Vietnam and had the medals and wounds to prove it.

His daughter Nicole is still learning to live with the fact he died during what was supposed to be a routine commuter flight last week in a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y.

"I guess that was his fate," said Nicole Yarber.

If Yarber is angry, she's not showing it. If she wants someone held accountable, she's not saying it.

But Nicole Yarber does want everyone to know what it's like to be one of the surviving relatives of the victims in that crash. After the air disaster, she gathered in Buffalo with other families for a tour sponsored and organized by Continental so the families could see for themselves what happened.

"On the crash site it was mostly silence. Crying, there was a lot of crying and hugging. It was a lot to take in seeing that. It looks a lot different in person than it does on television," Yarber said.

Since then, Yarber says, it has been hard to grieve, much less find peace because the phone calls won't stop. There have been so many calls from reporters and others that she had to change her phone number.

Clearwater attorneys George Tragos and Peter Sartes say they arranged a news conference in their offices Friday as friends of Yarber, not as her lawyers.

They wanted to give Yarber one more chance to speak about her father's life, to describe her trip to the crash scene, and to satisfy the public's curiosity.

They dismiss any talk of lawsuits as premature.

"At this point no one's thinking that way," said George Tragos. "At this point we're only thinking that a daughter's lost a father and that's what we're thinking of. These other matters will take care of themselves as time goes on."

Tragos says Continental has given Yarber's family, and the families of other survivors, an unspecified amount of money with no strings attached to handle expenses related to travel and funeral costs.

Once the Yarber family receives a death certificate and Clay Yarber's remains, they plan to bury him in Ohio, where three of six his children live.

Friends and family are planning a memorial service Monday at Harvest Temple on 13301 Walsingham Road in Largo. The reception starts at 6 p.m. The service begins at 7:30 p.m.

Well-wishers will gather later at the Ringside Café in St. Petersburg.

In lieu of donations, the family is asking for donations to the Marine Semper Fi Fund for injured marines. Information on the fund can be found at www.semperfifund.org.

Reporter Mark Douglas can be reached at 727-536-9603

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT