A single-engine plane registered to Oscar-winning Titanic composer James Horner has crashed in Southern California, but the identity of the one person who died has not been released.

The crash happened at about 9.30am local time yesterday near Quatal Canyon in Los Padres National Forest, Ventura County fire spokesman Mike Lindbery said.

The pilot was killed. No one else was on board.

Jay Cooper, a lawyer 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," Mr Cooper said.

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 from Los Angeles.

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.