Neb. man says daughter was killed in Mo. plane crash

Tarkio, Mo. -- The father of a pilot who died when her plane crashed during practice for an air show in northwest Missouri said she was attempting an aggressive maneuver, but he doesn't know what made her go down.

The Atchison County, Mo., Sheriff's Department confirmed Sunday that Chandy Clanton, 36, of Lincoln, Neb., died Friday while performing aerobatics. The FAA is investigating the crash of her Edge 540 propeller-driven plane in a bean field east of Tarkio.

"Some people are musicians, and some people are painters," her father, Harry Barr, told the Lincoln Journal Star, "and some people have artistic capabilities in an airplane."

Barr, a pilot himself, said he flew to the scene when he heard about the crash.

His daughter was a three-time member of the United States Unlimited Aerobatic Team and competed in two World Aerobatic Championships. Her flight was to be one of the main attractions of Saturday's Tarkio Missouri Air Show, which went on as planned. Clanton had flown in the show many times.

Larry Lumkin, a pilot who knew Clanton for at least 10 years, dedicated his flight at the air show to her.

"We had a moment of silence in the briefing," Lumkin said. "We spoke of our kind words, and thoughts of Chandy and what she meant to us."

Clanton's website says she was scheduled to perform at an air show in Oshkosh, Wis., later this month. She planned to fly in an air show at Offutt Air Force Base, just outside Omaha, in late August.

Clanton had two sons, ages 10 and 7, her father said.

Along with working as a pilot and raising her boys, she also helped found The Word of Life Church, which opened in March in Lincoln.

"She's a wonderful, warm person," Pastor Larry Oetting said. "It was quite obvious that she was a leader in many ways."

A public memorial service is tentatively scheduled for Friday in Lincoln.

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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com