No one was injured when a small plane crashed in an unoccupied area just west of the University Park Airport on Friday.

Penn State Police Services Officer Ted Delaney said the single-passenger aircraft went down around 3:30 p.m. just west of the airport and south of Fox Hill Road. He said Penn State owns the property where the crash took place.

Delaney said the cause of the crash has not been officially determined, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was dispatched to the scene for further investigation.

"We believe the plane lost power to the engine, but the FAA is conducting the investigation," Delaney said. "They are making sure it was accidental."

The pilot was en route to Bellefonte Airport from Charlotte, N.C., and the plane was identified as a Beechcraft Bonanza M-35.

Penn State spokesman Tysen Kendig said although the University Park Airport is located on the university's land, the aerial operations are run by the FAA.

"The staff and the FAA run all of the operations," he said. "The only part the university has is the fact that the airport is on our land."

John Elnitski, owner of the Bellefonte Airport, said the plane was only three miles short of its intended destination. His staff had no involvement in the investigation.

"The next step is to run the engine to determine a cause of the accident," Elnitski said.

Both Elnitski and Delaney said there was damage to a few surrounding trees, but no buildings or other structures were affected.

Bob Dannaker, manager of airport operations at University Park Airport, said the next step is for the FAA to gather the plane's remnants and process them to determine the cause of the crash.

He said this could take months, or even longer.

"Sometimes it can take a year for information to surface," he said.

Dannaker said the last plane crash that involved fatalities to take place in this area was about 10 years ago.

"It was snowing hard and a plane crashed at the end of Mount Nittany," he said. "Several individuals were killed."

Kendig said the university would have no immediate comment due to lack of information. FAA officials were not available for comment yesterday.

Police did not release the name of the plane's pilot.