Rep. Tom Tiffany and his pilot escaped with minor injuries after their single-engine plane lost power and went down in Lake Wausau, triggering a frantic nighttime rescue.
A Wisconsin congressman running for governor and his pilot are alive after their single-engine plane lost power on approach to a northern Wisconsin airport and went down in Lake Wausau, forcing a nighttime emergency landing that left both men swimming for shore as the aircraft sank beneath them.
Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany and pilot Leonard "Len" Boltz escaped with minor injuries. Tiffany needed 12 stitches for a gash above his right eye, and Boltz received four stitches, the congressman said at a Sunday news conference hours after he was released from the hospital.
Newly released dispatch audio and Tiffany's own account of the ordeal revealed how narrow the margin was between a routine landing and a tragedy -- and how quickly a quiet lake became the center of a frantic rescue.
Tiffany was returning Saturday night from an appearance at the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner when the four-seat Beechcraft K35 Bonanza began its final approach to Wausau Downtown Airport. The plane lost power, and Boltz had only seconds to react.
"Len said to me, 'We are going down. Pull your seatbelt tight,'" Tiffany recalled. "And that's exactly what I did. I gave it a yank and pulled it good and tight."
About 10 seconds later, the aircraft hit the water. The impact drove Tiffany's head into the dashboard, opening the cut above his eye that would later require a dozen stitches. Boltz was treated for his own minor injuries. The two men were the only people aboard.
Water began pouring into the cabin almost immediately. The men checked on each other, then scrambled out through the passenger-side door as the plane started to fill. Tiffany searched the cockpit for his phone but could not find it. Boltz still had his and called 911.
With the aircraft slipping below the surface, the pair climbed on top of it and waited roughly 10 minutes as emergency lights began to appear around the shoreline. When the plane finally sank under them, they started swimming toward the airport -- covering about 100 to 150 feet before Tiffany found a high spot where the water was only about five feet deep.
"I said to Len, 'Let's just stay right here until help can come,' because we could see the sirens," Tiffany said. His voice broke as the weight of the night caught up with him. "We are just really fortunate. We're really fortunate that God was looking after us last night."
Radio traffic from the rescue painted a picture of first responders racing against the dark across a lake with few landmarks and even fewer answers. One responder called for additional ambulances and an engine, and requested mutual aid and a boat at Bluegill Park.
A witness had seen the aircraft go down but could provide only a general search area. Crews brought thermal-imaging equipment and used the last known GPS coordinates of a phone believed to be underwater to narrow the hunt. A local landowner offered a boat to help with the search.
"I believe his phone is underwater," one responder radioed. "They may be swimming south, I believe."
The tension broke when crews announced they had located both men. "We have two victims in the water. We're just pulling them out now," a responder said. Minutes later, the two were reported alert and conscious and everyone aboard the aircraft was accounted for.
Tiffany and Boltz were taken to Aspirus Wausau Hospital and released the same night. Tiffany said his wife, Chris, was at his side. "God was watching over us tonight, and I am incredibly grateful to be here in the hospital with my wife, Chris, by my side," he said. "An experience like this reminds you just how precious life is."
Tiffany represents Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District and is the Republican candidate for governor in the state's upcoming election. A plane crash in the final stretch of a statewide campaign instantly reshaped the conversation around a race that already had the GOP base energized.
Support poured in across social media within hours of his posts describing the landing. "My god! What an ordeal. Very grateful everyone is safe," one supporter wrote. Others offered prayers and relief that both men walked away.
The cause of the power loss remains under investigation. Tiffany's campaign said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will handle the inquiry, which is standard for an incident of this kind.
For now, the story is less about policy than about providence. A candidate who spent the night in a hospital bed after swimming from a sinking plane will return to the campaign trail with the kind of story no strategist could script -- and with an investigation still to come that may explain what went wrong over Lake Wausau.
Rep. Tom Tiffany and his pilot escaped with minor injuries after their single-engine plane lost power and went down in Lake Wausau, triggering a frantic nighttime rescue.
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