Wisconsin Rep. Tom Tiffany said he feared for his life when the pilot warned that their plane was about to crash into a lake, telling Fox News that he and the pilot survived “by the grace of God.”
Tiffany, a Republican who is seeking the governorship, suffered only a head wound when the four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza lost power and was forced to land in Lake Wausau on Saturday.
As the aircraft entered its final turn before landing, the pilot reportedly told Tiffany, “Tom, we are going down, pull your seatbelt as tight as possible,” the congressman said in an interview Monday night.
“It was like staring into the abyss. And you don’t know how far down it is,” Tiffany recalled.
He tightened his seatbelt, but only seconds passed before the plane slammed into the water. “We hit it hard,” he said.
Tiffany later appeared on television with a cut above his eye that required 12 stitches. It was his only injury, a result he attributed in part to the pilot’s efforts to keep the plane upright and floating after impact.
After the crash, Tiffany said he and the pilot immediately checked on each other. “We looked at each other and said, ‘Are you okay?’” he recalled.
As the damaged aircraft began to sink, the two men forced open the door and swam away from the plane toward shore. Local law enforcement officers and first responders then pulled them to safety.
Tiffany thanked the rescuers for their response, saying, “I can’t thank them enough for what they did, but it’s by the grace of God that we are here today.”
The congressman said the event unfolded so rapidly that he initially struggled to reconstruct exactly what had happened.
The pilot, whose name has not been released publicly, received four stitches and was otherwise unharmed. Tiffany and the pilot were the only people aboard.
Authorities are still investigating what caused the aircraft to suddenly lose power.
Tiffany was flying back from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner and heading to Wausau Downtown Airport when the incident occurred.
He has represented Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District since 2020, succeeding Sean Duffy, who now serves as President Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary.
In November, Tiffany will face Democrat David Crowley in the race for Wisconsin governor.
A first head-to-head poll since Aug. 11’s primary showed Rep. Crowley leading Rep. Tiffany by 49 to 44 among likely voters, although the pair are tied 44-44 among registered voters.
