Horner's attorney Jay Cooper said that nobody had heard from the 61-year-old composer since Monday's crash in the Los Padres National Forest, 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.

Emergency crews extinguished burning vegetation at the remote crash site.

Horner owned several planes, Cooper said.

"It was his plane and if he wasn't in it, he would've called," Cooper said, referring to the S-312 Tucano MK1 turbo-prop aircraft with two seats.

Multiple award winner

Horner won an Academy Award in 1998 for the theme song "My Heart Will Go On," which was sung by Celine Dion. Titanic's soundtrack sold 27 million copies worldwide.

Horner also composed scores for "Alien," "Apollo 13," "Braveheart," "Field of Dreams" and "A Beautiful Mind," receiving several other Oscar nominations.

In a 2009 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Horner said: "My job … is to make sure at every turn of the film it's something the audience can feel with their heart."

ipj/msh (dpa, AP, AFP)