Wisconsin Rep. Tom Tiffany Survives Plane Crash Into Lake
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin survived an emergency water landing Saturday evening after the single-engine plane he was traveling in lost power on its final approach and went down in Lake Wausau, the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Tiffany, the GOP nominee for Wisconsin governor, and the pilot, Leonard Boltz, escaped the sinking aircraft with only minor injuries.
The incident began at about 8:49 p.m. Saturday, when the plane lost power as it approached Wausau Downtown Airport, according to NPR. Tiffany said Boltz tried to restart the engine without success. The pilot then told him to brace for impact.
“At that point, he just said, ‘Hang on, Tom, and buckle up because we’re going to go down,’” Tiffany told reporters at a press conference Sunday, per Wisconsin Public Radio. “It was just real shortly after that, I would guess 10 seconds, we hit the water.”
A Harrowing Escape
After the plane hit the water, the two men climbed on top of the sinking aircraft. Tiffany lost his phone in the crash, but Boltz was able to call 911 while standing on the fuselage, the sheriff’s office said.
“The 911 call had come in from one of the occupants of the plane. They were able to exit the plane and made the call while they were basically standing on top of the plane,” Lt. Cory Gladden of the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office told WPR.
Tiffany estimated they remained atop the plane for roughly ten minutes before it began to submerge. The pair then swam about 100 to 150 feet to a sandbar, where they waited for rescue. Firefighters from the Wausau Fire Department reached them by airboat at about 9:05 p.m., roughly 20 minutes after the initial call.
Both men were taken to Aspirus Wausau Hospital with minor injuries and released Saturday night. Tiffany received 12 stitches for a laceration above his right eyebrow after his head struck the dashboard, while Boltz, a retired Air Force pilot, suffered cuts that required four stitches, The Associated Press reported.
Tiffany credited Boltz with retracting the landing gear before hitting the water, a maneuver he said likely prevented the plane from cartwheeling and may have saved their lives. He estimated the aircraft was traveling about 70 mph at impact.
“We’re really fortunate that God was looking after us last night,” the 68-year-old Tiffany said.
Pilot Praised for ‘Awesome Flying’
John Chmiel, manager of the Wausau Downtown Airport and a pilot himself, surveyed the waterlogged Beechcraft K35 on Sunday and praised Boltz’s handling of the emergency. The plane was returning from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner in Onalaska.
“Regardless of what happened leading up to the accident, once he knew he was committed to a water landing, he did every single thing right. It was awesome flying,” Chmiel said.
Chmiel noted that emergency water landings, while rare and difficult to execute safely — particularly after dark — offer the advantage of fewer obstructions than land. “The beautiful thing about water is there typically isn’t obstructions or people or vessels in there that you have to worry about hitting,” he said.
He also placed the incident in broader context for general aviation, which accounts for the vast majority of U.S. flight operations. “In the United States of America, there are less than a half dozen (aircraft incidents) a day in the entire USA, so that kind of puts things in perspective,” he said.
Investigation Underway
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the loss of power. An NTSB spokesperson said the agency is waiting for the FAA to assess whether the damage was substantial enough to warrant its involvement — standard protocol for aircraft accident inquiries.
The aircraft remains in Lake Wausau. Officials placed a no-wake buoy near the wreckage and asked boaters to avoid the area until crews can remove the plane.
Political Fallout Muted
The crash briefly intersected with Wisconsin’s closely watched governor’s race. Tiffany said the incident will not affect his campaign, and he planned to return to the trail Monday.
“I signed up for this job. We’re going to finish the job,” he told reporters.
David Crowley, the Democratic candidate for governor, wrote on X that he was grateful no one was hurt in what he called a “horrifying incident,” wishing Tiffany a “quick recovery” and lauding the “heroism of the pilot.”
The episode also drew fresh attention to general aviation safety. Single-engine aircraft like the Beechcraft Bonanza are a fixture of private and business travel across rural America, and loss-of-power accidents on final approach remain a persistent, if statistically uncommon, cause of crashes.
For now, Tiffany said the gravity of the close call was only beginning to sink in. “We were making jokes every step of the way last night, though we knew it was a serious situation, we tried to keep it light through the whole thing,” he said.