Wisconsin lawmaker Tom Tiffany has described the terrifying seconds before the small plane carrying him crashed into a lake, recalling how the pilot warned him they were going down and told him to brace.
The Republican congressman and gubernatorial candidate said the four-seat aircraft was approaching Wausau, Wisconsin, on Saturday night when the pilot instructed him to fasten his seat belt tightly.
“As we were making that final turn before we were going to approach for landing, the pilot turned to me and said, ‘Tom, we are going down, pull your seat belt as tight as possible,’” Tiffany told Fox News on Monday night.
“And it was like staring into the abyss. And you don’t know how far down it is.”
Tiffany quickly tightened the belt before the plane plunged into Lake Wausau.
“I pulled that seat belt as tight as I could and it was just a couple seconds later, we hit the water and we hit it hard,” he said.
Despite the force of the impact, the aircraft remained intact and stayed afloat.
“The plane stayed upright, thankfully as a result of the skilled work of the pilot, and we looked at each other and said, ‘Are you okay?’” Tiffany recalled.
A small plane carrying Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany home from a campaign event lost power on Saturday night, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing in the lake
Tiffany swam toward shallow water and waited for assistance as emergency responders reached the scene. A cut above his eye required 12 stitches, but it was his only injury
As the damaged plane began to sink in the darkness, Tiffany realized that he and the pilot had only a limited amount of time to get out.
“When we were both okay I just said to him, ‘Get this door open,’ because, you know, the door was right there on my side in the copilot’s seat,” he explained.
They managed to open the door, escape the aircraft and swim away from it toward the shoreline.
“We got the door open, got out and the rest from there, we were able to be saved by the local law enforcement as well as the first responders,” Tiffany said.
“I can’t thank them enough for what they did, but it’s by the grace of God that we are here today.”
Tiffany said the events unfolded so quickly that he has found it difficult to reconstruct exactly what happened moment by moment.
“It happened really quickly,” he said. “And we were out of that plane I think really quickly. And, you know, you just try to piece it back together but it just happened so quickly.”
The congressman suffered a gash above his eye that required 12 stitches. The pilot received four stitches.
The plane was recovered from Lake Wausau in Wausau, Wisconsin, on Monday
The Marathon County Sheriff’s Office reported that a private plane went down in Lake Wausau at 9 p.m. local time on Saturday night
ALSO READ: Sacramento County Slaughterhouse’s ‘Kill Floor’ Project Advances Despite Neighbor Opposition
‘Each of us had very minor injuries. Once again thanks to the grace of God,’ Tiffany said. ‘This is the only injury I have.’
The dramatic account came two days after Tiffany first revealed he had survived the crash while returning home from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner.
He said the four-seat Bonanza lost power as it approached Wausau Downtown Airport, forcing the pilot to attempt an emergency landing on the lake.
‘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,’ Tiffany wrote on Facebook after the ordeal.
‘The pilot made an emergency water landing in Lake Wausau. After landing, we called 911,’ Tiffany wrote. ‘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.’
The Marathon County Sheriff’s Office and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources responded to the scene.
Tiffany and the pilot were taken from the water and transported to Aspirus Wausau Hospital for treatment.
The congressman later thanked those involved in the dramatic rescue, saying first responders ‘got us safely off the water and transported us to Aspirus Wausau Hospital, where we received excellent care.’
Exactly what caused the aircraft to lose power remains under investigation.
Tiffany, a Republican, has represented Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District since 2020, winning the seat previously held by Sean Duffy, who resigned from Congress in 2019 and now serves as President Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary.
Tiffany is now the Republican nominee for Wisconsin governor and is set to face Democrat David Crowley in November.
A Marquette Law School poll published at the end of August showed the two tied at 44 percent of support each among respondents who were registered voters. 12 percent of registered voter respondents to the poll were undecided.
Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district has been represented by Republicans for the last 15 years.