A Wisconsin congressman and Republican candidate for governor, Tom Tiffany, and pilot Leonard Boltz suffered minor injuries and had to swim to safety after ditching their V-tail Bonanza in Lake Wausau on Saturday. Tiffany wrote in an X post that he and Boltz were coming back from an event in Onalaska when the aircraft lost power on the approach to Wausau Downtown Airport and Boltz put it down in the lake. “After landing, we called 911. As the plane began to submerge, we exited the aircraft and swam to a shallow area, where we waited until emergency responders reached us by boat,” Tiffany wrote.
The pair was in the water for about 20 minutes before first responders arrived by boat. Tiffany got stitches for a cut above his right eye but was otherwise none the worse for wear. The FAA and NTSB will investigate.
