NATCHEZ &045; A preliminary report into the cause of a fatal plane crash at the Natchez-Adams County Airport details what witnesses say they saw the morning of July 30.

The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary report on the crash that killed three people and injured one.

But it may be several months before the board releases a final report giving the probable cause of the crash, an NTSB spokesman said Monday.

&uot;It’s usually several months (after the preliminary report) before the board releases a longer factual report, followed quickly by what they’ve determined to be the probable cause,&uot; said Paul Schlamm, a public affairs officer for the board’s Washington office.

Although Schlamm was not familiar with the details of the Natchez crash, he said at this point, investigators are probably still examining pieces of wreckage.

Some of those pieces of the plane, a single-engine Mooney M20, could also be sent to the NTSB’s Washington lab for further scrutiny, Schlamm said.

However, the preliminary report released Friday did detail two witness accounts of the incident.

One witness, an airport employee, stated he saw the airplane climb to about 100 feet after takeoff before banking left.

The engine sounded normal, but the nose of the plane suddenly pitched down.

A pilot witness also told investigators that within a few hundred feet of takeoff, he noticed the plane’s climb was steeper than normal.

A pilot witness stated, he was standing in front of the airport office building as the accident airplane was taking off.

It was a normal looking departure and climb out. Within a few hundred feet, he noticed the climb out was steeper than normal. The airplane started banking to the left while it continued to climb, then nosed down and hit the ground.

The plane was piloted by Vincent J. Lewis, 56. He, 10-year-old Jessi Marie Harris; and her friend Victoria Spiers, also 10, all of Wichita Falls, Texas, died in the crash.

Spiers’ mother, 33-year-old Carmen Hastings, was airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in critical condition.

It was the first fatal crash in more than 20 years at the Natchez airport and the first incident of any kind in more than two years, according to airport personnel.

A searchable database of airplane crashes is available at the board’s Web site,

http://www.ntsb.gov/

NTSB/query.asp.