By Rep. Tom Tiffany and his pilot escaped a sinking plane Saturday night after it lost power on approach to Wausau Downtown Airport and made an emergency landing in Lake Wausau. Both men swam to shallow water and were rescued with minor injuries. Tiffany, the Republican nominee for Wisconsin governor, had been returning from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner. The Associated Press reported that pilot Leonard “Len” Boltz was flying the single-engine Beechcraft.
Tiffany said Boltz gave him a brief warning before the plane hit the water. “As we went to our final approach, the plane lost power, and Len said to me: ‘We are going down. Pull your seat belt tight.’ That’s exactly what I did. I gave it a yank and pulled it good and tight. And it was probably about 10 seconds later. Not sure the exact timing, but probably about 10 seconds later, we hit the water. And after the plane settled, probably a couple seconds, we looked at each other. ‘Are you OK?’ And he said to me, ‘Are you OK?’ And like, ‘Yeah, doing fine,’” Tiffany said at a Sunday news conference.
While returning home from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner tonight, the plane I was traveling in lost power as we approached the Wausau Downtown Airport. The pilot made an emergency water landing in Lake Wausau.
After landing, we called 911. As the plane began to…
— Tom Tiffany (@TomTiffanyWI) September 13, 2026
The two men got out as the aircraft began to submerge and swam to a nearby sandbar, Tiffany said. He described “no panic” during the escape. A Wausau Fire Department airboat brought them off the lake, and both were taken to Aspirus Wausau Hospital. Tiffany said he received stitches above his right eye; both men were released that night.
CBS 58 obtained these photos of the plane Tom Tiffany was on when it made an emergency landing in Wausau Lake last night. pic.twitter.com/KBtWNGLicR
— The Corridor News (@CorridorScanner) September 13, 2026
“I want to express my deepest gratitude to the pilot, the Wausau Fire Department, and all of the first responders who came to our aid so quickly,” Tiffany said. “They got us safely off the water and transported us to Aspirus Wausau Hospital, where we received excellent care. Thankfully, both the pilot and I sustained only minor injuries.”
Tiffany said the experience began to weigh on him as he recounted it Sunday. “I have to say that the gravity of this is probably just hitting me at this point,” he said. “We were making jokes every step of the way last night, though we knew it was a serious situation, but we tried to keep it light through the whole thing.” He said the landing would not stop his campaign.
Tiffany represents Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District and faces Democratic nominee David Crowley in the Nov. 3 gubernatorial election. Crowley also offered his support after the landing. “I’m grateful to God that Congressman Tiffany and no one else was hurt in this horrifying incident, which could have been a tragedy if not for the heroism of the pilot,” he wrote on Twitter.
The aircraft remained in the lake Sunday. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating and National Transportation Safety Board was awaiting the FAA’s assessment to determine its role. The cause of the reported power loss has not been established.
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