NATCHEZ &045; Workers with the Natchez-Adams County Airport were the first on the scene of the first fatal plane crash there in decades.

Sam Minor, a longtime airport employee, said a pilot tying down his own plane told him the plane had crashed. Minor was the first person on the scene after the crash.

&uot;We hurried to get the fire truck and went out there,&uot; Minor said. &uot;There was a lady around who knew CPR, so we went out there to see what we could do.&uot;

Minor said he called 911 and Airport Executive Director Clint Pomeroy after going out to the crash.

Pomeroy said his staff told him the plane had taken off on runway 31, headed northwest, and got airborne only 100 to 200 feet before it banked sharply left and took a nosedive into the ground.

Adams County Sheriff Ronny Brown said emergency responders arrived quickly and did their jobs well.

&uot;The people from the airport were already out there to see what could be done (when I arrived),&uot; Brown said. &uot;Our deputies got there, the ambulances drove up and then the fire trucks came. It was a pretty quick response time from everyone. That’s the first crash we’ve had and everybody went to work and tried to get help out there.&uot;

Pomeroy said airport staff is trained to use the fire trucks at the airport.

&uot;Every one of them is trained on how to use the fire truck,&uot; Pomeroy said. &uot;They know what to do for the basics.&uot;

The plane did not catch on fire &045; and Pomeroy said it’s actually a myth that planes immediately catch fire when they crash.

&uot;People watch too much Hollywood,&uot; he said. &uot;Planes don’t just explode.&uot;

Usually the fuel tank would have to have been damaged severely for the wreckage to catch fire, Pomeroy said.

The airport staff is actually about to undergo more formal training for emergency situations, Pomeroy said.

Pomeroy, who has worked at the airport for 30 years, could not recall when the last fatal crash had occurred at the airport, but he and others said it may have been 20 years or more.

The last incident at the airport was more than two years ago, Pomeroy said, when a pilot lost control of his aircraft on landing and spun, driving a wing into the ground.