'Titanic' composer missing after California plane crash

FILE: Composer James Horner at the premiere of ‘Avatar’ in 2009 in Hollywood. Picture: AFP.

 LOS ANGELES - Hollywood composer James Horner, who scored the Oscar-winning film Titanic and its mega-hit theme song My Heart Will Go On, has not been heard from since his private airplane crashed in Southern California on Monday morning, his lawyer said.

Jay Cooper, a prominent music industry attorney, confirmed that a plane that crashed in the Los Padres National Forest, north of Los Angeles, belonged to his client Horner, 61, but could not say whether Horner was aboard the aircraft.

“He’s an experienced pilot, but I know nothing else,” Cooper told Reuters.
Local fire authorities said the 9:30 am crash of the five-passenger plane left an impact crater and sparked a fire that charred more than an acre of brush, and that there were no survivors.

Captain Mike Lindbery of the Ventura County Fire Department said only one set of remains was found, but he did not know whether the crash victim had been positively identified.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

Horner won two Academy Awards for his work on Titanic - one for the movie’s score and one he shared with lyricist Will Jennings for best original song, My Heart Will Go On, performed by Celine Dion.

Horner also composed the music for an array of other major films, including Aliens, The Karate Kid, and Braveheart. His scores for Avatar, A Beautiful Mind and House of Sand and Fog earned Oscar nominations.