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    Oscar-winning James Horner Assumed Dead in Plane Crash

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    A firefighter walks near charred debris following a plane crash near the town of Ventucopa, Calif., Monday, June 22, 2015. County fire spokesman Mike Lindbery says the crash happened around 9:30 a.m. Monday near Quatal Canyon in Los Padres National Forest. (Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP)

    Plane in California crash registered to 'Titanic' composer

    VENTURA, Calif. (AP) --

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

    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 killed. No one else was on board.

    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 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.

    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."

    Tags:James HornerOscar ComposerPlane Crash



    Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died

    Saturday, December 21, 2024
    Suchir Balaji poses for a photo in Hawaii in 2018. Balaji was a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who died in November 2024. (Balaji Ramamurthy via AP)

    Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.

    Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.

    "We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.

    Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.

    His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.

    Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.

    "Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More

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