A single-engine plane registered to Oscar-winning "Titanic" composer James Horner crashed Monday in Southern California, killing the pilot.
The crash happened at about 9:30 a.m. near Quatal Canyon in Los Padres National Forest, Ventura County fire spokesman Mike Lindbery said.
The pilot was the only person on board the aircraft when it crashed, but authorities have not identified the body.
Jay Cooper, an attorney for Horner, said the plane was one of several owned by the 61-year-old composer, and that no one has heard from him since the crash.
"It was his plane and if he wasn't in it, he would've called," Cooper said.
The Hollywood Reporter identified Horner as the pilot of the plane when it went down, citing a Facebook post by the composer’s assistant Sylvia Patrycja. “A great tragedy has struck my family today, and I will not be around for a while,” Patrycja wrote on the social media site.
Actors, filmmakers and musicians took to social media to pay tribute to Horner's memory despite the absence of an official confirmation by the Oscar winner's spokesperson, family, aviation officials or law enforcement.
The plane was an S-312 Tucano MK1 turbo-prop with two seats, said Ian Gregor, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Crews extinguished a fire that erupted in vegetation surrounding the remote crash site, about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
U.S. & World
Horner has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, winning two for 1997's best picture, "Titanic." He composed the film's score and its enduring theme song, "My Heart Will Go On," sung by Celine Dion.
His scores for "Alien," ''Apollo 13," ''Field of Dreams," ''Braveheart," ''A Beautiful Mind," ''House of Sand and Fog" and "Avatar" also earned Oscar nods, as did his original song, "Somewhere Out There," from "An American Tail."
