Brazilian Presidential Candidate Eduardo Campos Dies in Plane Crash

Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos was killed Wednesday in a plane crash, shocking the nation and upending October's elections.

The Brazilian Socialist Party candidate died when the private Cessna Citation in which he was traveling crashed into a residential area of the coastal city of Santos, about 35 miles south of São Paulo. 

Officials said the pilot had aborted a landing due to poor weather and was attempting to change course. All seven people aboard perished, including the pilot and co-pilot, a reporter, a photographer and two of Mr. Campos' campaign aides.

A two-time governor of Pernambuco state in northeast Brazil, Mr. Campos, 49 years old, hailed from a left-wing political dynasty. In a tragic coincidence, he died on the anniversary of the death of his grandfather, Miguel Arraes, a former governor and major figure in the opposition to Brazil's dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s.

President Dilma Rousseff declared three days of mourning. "Today we lost a great Brazilian," she said. "Eduardo was a great leader."

A leftist who was also friendly to business and tough on crime. Mr. Campos had hoped to appeal to both progressives and fiscal conservatives, but his campaign had trouble gaining traction. A recent poll had shown him with about 8% of the likely vote—a distant third behind Ms. Rousseff and her main rival, Aécio Neves of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party.

Eduardo Campos spoke during a meeting with businessmen at the National Agriculture Confederation headquarters in Brasilia on August 6. Reuters

Those standings could change, however, if Mr. Campos is succeeded at the top of the ticket by his popular running mate, Marina Silva, who ran for president herself in 2010 and won about 19% of the vote.