BEAVER ISLAND, Mich. (AP) — A sheriff says federal authorities have declined to investigate a small plane crash on a Lake Michigan island.

The crash last weekend on Beaver Island killed Donald Falik, a 72-year-old pilot from Eaton County, near Lansing.

Charlevoix County Sheriff Charles Vondra says the Federal Aviation Administration has no plan to travel to northern Michigan, even when the government shutdown ends. He says he finds it “unusual.”

The sheriff says the cause of the crash — mechanical or pilot error — might never be known. Beaver Island is off the northwestern tip of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.

The FAA couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday because of the government shutdown.