WAUSAU, Wis. (WRN) — “Fortunate” was an ongoing theme of Congressman Tom Tiffany’s press conference on Sunday, after he survived a crash-landing into Lake Wausau as he was returning from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner.
The Republican candidate for governor was flying back to Wausau Saturday night with Langlade County GOP chairman Leonard Boltz, the pilot, when Boltz’s Beachcraft K-35 v-tail “Bonanza” lost power while descending into the downtown Wausau airport.
“I suspect he was making efforts to restart the plane, but was unsuccessful. And at that point he just said, hang on, Tom, and buckle up because we’re going to go down. And it was just real shortly after that, I would guess 10 seconds, we hit the water,” Tiffany said.
“And as it was steadily submerging, we finally decided that we should probably leave the plane. And so we began to swim towards the airport to the east and we made it, I’m guessing, about 100 feet, maybe 150 feet. And at that point, my feet touched ground.”
The pair escaped with minor injuries. Tiffany says the crash won’t stop his campaign duties.