Investigators are still at the scene of an plane crash in Shenandoah County Saturday Night.

State Police say the pilot was Jim Pellien from Alexandria, Virginia.

He was flying to the Bryce Resort Airport in Shenandoah County where he runs a business selling small sport airplanes.

Authorities say it will be a long time before we know what caused the crash.

At around 4:30 Saturday afternoon a Czech made small sports aircraft crashed near Bryce Resort.

Rescuers say the pilot, died almost instantly.

He was flying alone, and no one on the ground was injured.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are trying to find out just how the crash happened.

Planes this size usually do not have a flight recorder or black box, so investigators will be studying the plane to find out why it went down.

"We'll be moving the aircraft to a secure location where we'll be able to do an in-depth examination under a controlled condition, we'll be bringing it into facility and laying it out to look at the systems and the structure," says NTSB Investigator Todd Gunther.

For now investigators will be focusing on the scene.

"We'll be on scene here for about two days, most accidents of this nature take anywhere from 6 to 8 months before we'll release a final report," says Gunther.

Until that report is written... authorities will not decide what the cause of the crash was.

For now fellow fliers in the Bryce Resort area say they're remembering Pellien as a pilot.

Dick Danzollo says Pellien was working with other pilots trying to get more people into flying.

"Jim really loved flying he just recently took an airplane here up to new jersey where he has family and he was talkin about how wonderful it was to fly with his grandson," said Dick.

Again investigators say it will take months before they determine what caused the crash.

However they will be releasing a preliminary report in a few days explaining the facts they recovered the scene.