SANTOS, Brazil (AP) – Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos died today when the small plane that was carrying him and several campaign officials plunged into a residential neighbourhood in the port city of Santos.
All seven people aboard the plane, including a campaign photographer and cameraman, a press adviser and two pilots, died in the crash, Santos City Hall press officer Patricia Fagueiro told The Associated Press.
In a solemn address, President Dilma Rousseff declared three days of official mourning in honour of Campos and said she would suspend her campaign during that time.
“Today Brazil is in mourning and reeling from a death that took the life of a promising young politician,” she said, adding that Campos had been facing “an extremely promising future”.
Campos, the scion of a political family from the northeastern state of Pernambuco, had been an ally of Rousseff but broke away ahead of the campaign for the October 4 presidential election.
Polls suggested he was running in third place, far behind Rousseff and another political rival. But his Brazilian Socialist Party ticket was widely regarded as among the best-placed to challenge Rousseff and her Workers Party, thanks largely to his popular running mate, former Environment Minister Marina Silva, who joined Campos’ ticket after her attempt to run for president herself failed.
It was not immediately clear whether Silva would assume Campos’ spot as the party’s presidential candidate. Under Brazilian law, in the event of a candidate’s death, a party has ten days to decide on a substitute.
A visibly shaken Silva spoke to reporters in Santos, reading a prepared statement in which she concentrated on her relationship with Campos and gave her political future a wide berth.
“During these ten months of partnership, I learned to respect him, admire him and feel confidence in his attitudes and his ideals in life,” Silva said in a soft, wavering voice. She rose from the microphone before the press could pepper her with questions.
Pundits were already predicting that Campos’ death could complicate the presidential race for Rousseff.
Brazilian television broadcast a continuous loop of images of the wreckage, a smouldering pit between buildings of several stories, with emergency workers picking through the rubble. Brazil’s top broadcaster, Globo, ran interviews with eyewitnesses who reported the plane was already ablaze before the crash around 10 a.m.
Aeronautical authorities said the Cessna 560XL was attempting to land in bad weather.
