Hear Desperate Search For Battleground GOP Candidate After Plane Crash

“We’re gonna be in search for a downed plane.”

Those chilling words over emergency dispatch audio kicked off the nighttime search for Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany and his pilot after their powerless plane crashed into Lake Wausau in Wisconsin and began sinking beneath the water.

The radio traffic captures the uncertain minutes that followed as first responders scrambled Saturday night to figure out where the plane had gone down and, more importantly, where the two men had gone after getting out.

Tiffany was heading home from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner when the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza lost power as it approached Wausau Downtown Airport shortly before 9 p.m. Pilot Leonard “Len” Boltz had only seconds to react before making an emergency landing in the lake.

Tiffany and Boltz survived the impact and were able to call 911, but there was another problem almost immediately: the plane was going under.

Dispatchers knew the two men planned to get out and swim, but then contact with them disappeared.

“I was talking to the pilot. It sounds like they made plans to swim to the nearest shore after it went under and then I lost contact with them. I believe his phone is underwater so they may be swimming south I believe.”

That meant rescuers were now looking for two men somewhere in the dark water, with the plane itself sinking out of sight.

And this was no small pond. Lake Wausau stretches across roughly 1,900 acres, giving rescuers a massive area to contend with as they tried to pinpoint where Tiffany and Boltz had ended up.

The conditions weren’t exactly on their side either.

Temperatures were already dropping Saturday night and were headed toward the 50s, with overnight temperatures expected to fall to around 50 degrees.

Meanwhile, Tiffany and Boltz were in the lake waiting for rescuers to find them.

Crews were sent toward the area where a witness reported seeing the aircraft go down as boats joined the search.

Then came the call everyone had been waiting for.

“We have two victims in the water. We’re just pulling them out now.”

Dispatch quickly checked that there was nobody else left to find.

“Are all victims accounted for?”

The answer was exactly what rescuers wanted to hear.

“Yes, it’s two on board.”

Both Tiffany and Boltz were pulled from the water and taken to Aspirus Wausau Hospital with minor injuries.

Tiffany later revealed just how quickly the flight had gone from routine to terrifying.

“Len said to me, ‘We are going down. Pull your seatbelt tight,’” Tiffany recalled Sunday. “And that’s exactly what I did. I gave it a yank and pulled it good and tight.”

Tiffany said they hit the water roughly 10 seconds later.

The impact sent his head into the dashboard, leaving him with a gash above his right eye that required 12 stitches. Boltz also suffered cuts and needed four stitches.

After checking on each other, the two men escaped through the passenger-side door as water began filling the aircraft.
Tiffany searched for his phone but couldn’t find it. Boltz still had his and called 911.

The two climbed on top of the plane and waited as it slowly sank beneath them. Tiffany said they could see emergency lights appearing around the lake, but help had not reached them before the aircraft disappeared underwater.

With nothing left to stand on, they started swimming.

Tiffany said they made it roughly 100 to 150 feet before reaching a higher spot in the lake where the water was about five feet deep.

“I said to Len, ‘Let’s just stay right here until help can come,’ because we could see the sirens,” Tiffany said.

The gravity of the close call appeared to hit Tiffany as he recounted what happened Sunday.

“We are just really fortunate,” Tiffany said. “We’re really fortunate that God was looking after us last night.”

Tiffany credited Boltz’s experience with keeping the crash from becoming far worse. The retired Air Force pilot raised the plane’s landing gear before hitting the lake, a move Tiffany said may have prevented the aircraft from flipping.

“We’re fortunate the plane didn’t flip,” Tiffany said. “I just take that to the skill of the pilot.”

The two men were rescued by a Wausau Fire Department airboat shortly after 9 p.m., roughly 15 minutes after the plane went down.

The single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza remained submerged Sunday as the Federal Aviation Administration investigated what caused it to lose power.

Tiffany, meanwhile, said the crash, which comes less than two months before he’s set to face voters in Wisconsin’s governor’s race, would not keep him off the campaign trail.

“This will not deter me in my efforts that I started a year ago to become the next governor of the state of Wisconsin,” he said.

Tiffany has represented Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District in the House since 2020 after previously serving in both chambers of the Wisconsin Legislature. He grew up on a dairy farm in western Wisconsin and later became a small-business owner, operating a Northwoods excursion business with his wife, Chris.

Tiffany is now the Republican nominee for governor and will face Democratic Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley in November. President Donald Trump has endorsed Tiffany in the race.

Crowley responded to the crash by saying he was relieved Tiffany and the pilot were safe and wished them a speedy recovery.

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