NATCHEZ &045; According to witnesses, an airplane that crashed shortly after takeoff Saturday at the Adams County Airport apparently experienced an engine stall, perhaps because the plane was climbing at too sharp an angle.

Miles away at an air show in Wisconsin, Dr. Tom Borum of Natchez, a pilot since 1994 and a flight instructor, was called with the news.

And to him, the scenario sounded very familiar &045; not because he’s experienced such a tragedy firsthand, but because the causes and fixes of such stalls are something he stresses with his students.

Crews from Federal Aviation Administration arrived at the scene of the crash Saturday and National Transportation Safety Board crews will arrive today. As a result, it’s still too early to say for certain the cause of the crash.

But such stalls &uot;are common enough that the FAA has told us to go over (that information) with our students,&uot; Borum said.

A stall, he explained, can be caused when an airplane takes off at too sharp an angle, causing the airflow to break away from the top of the wings.

Borum said he works with students to simulate such stalls at higher altitudes, then leading them through the steps necessary to right the aircraft.