Brazilian pilot and Illinois coffee entrepreneur Juliana Turchetti dies after battling fire Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine

Juliana Turchetti. Photo of AgAir update. Used with permission.

Juliana Turchetti, a trailblazing Brazilian aerial firefighter and owner of Springfield, Illinois-based Aviatori Coffee, died Wednesday while battling a fire in Montana.

Working for Idaho-based company Dauntless Air, the 45-year-old Minas Gerais resident was flying a FireBoss aircraft contracted by the U.S. Forest Service to fight a man-made fire when the plane crashed. Turchetti was the only person on board. Local and federal authorities said the crash is under investigation.

Turchetti was an admired figure in aviation and the coffee industry, both of which he had acquired through childhood passions in Brazil. Turchetti was recently in the process of selling the Aviatori Coffee House in Springfield to devote more time to his aviation career.

After deciding at age 12 that his calling was in the skies, Turchetti took his first flight as a flight attendant to Brazil at age 21 to save money to become a pilot. He would eventually accumulate more than 6,000 flight hours while earning numerous piloting and instructor licenses, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was a regular contributor to the B2B news publication AgAir in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Turchetti moved to the United States in 2017, pursuing aviation jobs in Nevada, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas before finally landing in Havana, Illinois to fly agricultural aircraft.

While in Havana and missing his country’s coffee, Turchetti began importing roasted coffee and then green coffee from Minas Gerais. He began importing and roasting greens to sell at farmers markets, then opened the family-run Aviator Coffee Shop in 2022 inside a historic Springfield home.

In a 2022 radio interview with NPR Illinois, Turchetti shared some of his thoughts on coffee, urging guests to be brave.

“I love telling people what I know about coffee, because it’s a constant learning for me; I’m still learning a lot,” he said. “So never fear. If anyone is listening to us and wants to go there and ask questions. I am more than happy to answer. And, good coffee is the one you like.”

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