An experienced agricultural and firefighting pilot has been identified as the lone person killed in a plane crash Wednesday afternoon, during a firefighting mission on the Horse Gulch Fire near Helena.
Lewis and Clark Co. Sheriff and Coroner Leo Dutton said Juliana Turchetti, 45, died when the plane she was flying crashed into a mountainside and landed in Hauser Lake.
Turchetti was piloting a Fire Boss, a fixed-wing, single-engine scooper designed for wildland firefighting operations, and working for Dauntless Air, a firefighting company based in Idaho.
Dutton said Turchetti is originally from Brazil and leaves behind a 17-year-old son and numerous family members.
AgAir Update, a magazine devoted to agricultural aviation, shared a post on Facebook mourning the loss of Turchetti, who contributed many articles to their English, Spanish and Brazilian publications.
According to the post, Turchetti was one of Brazil's first female agricultural pilots and was an advocate for ag aviation.
