Dispatch audio and firsthand accounts paint a tense picture of a night rescue on Lake Wausau, where a small plane lost power on approach and went down in the water with Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany and pilot Leonard “Len” Boltz aboard. What started as a routine landing quickly turned into a scramble of sirens, boats, and radio calls as crews tried to pin down where the aircraft had disappeared.
Emergency responders immediately started throwing resources at the scene, asking for more ambulances, engines, and boats while trying to track the last known location tied to a phone believed to be underwater. One responder put the urgency bluntly: “We’re going to be in search for a down plane,” and the radio traffic never really let up from there.
Tiffany said Boltz had only seconds to react after the engine failed on the final stretch toward Wausau Downtown Airport. “Len said to me, ‘We are going down. Pull your seatbelt tight,’” Tiffany recalled during a news conference. “And that’s exactly what I did. I gave it a yank and pulled it good and tight.”
The plane hit hard enough to leave Tiffany with a gash above his right eye that needed 12 stitches, while Boltz received four stitches for one of his injuries. Tiffany said the impact shoved his head into the dashboard, and the two men moved quickly after realizing the cockpit was starting to fill with water.
They checked on each other, then got out through the passenger-side door and climbed onto the sinking aircraft. Tiffany searched for his phone but couldn’t find it, while Boltz still had his and called 911, helping set off the rescue effort that was already starting to spread around the lake.
The pair waited on top of the plane for about 10 minutes as lights and sirens closed in. Once the aircraft slipped lower into the water, they started swimming toward the airport and reached a shallow area after covering roughly 100 to 150 feet. Tiffany told Boltz, “Let’s just stay right here until help can come,” because the emergency crews were visible by then.
His voice cracked as he described the ordeal, and the emotion was hard to miss. “We are just really fortunate,” Tiffany said, pausing as he became emotional. “We’re really fortunate that God was looking after us last night.”
On the responder side, the audio shows a search team trying to make sense of a messy, uncertain scene. Crews used thermal-imaging gear, a witness account, and the phone’s last known GPS coordinates to narrow the search, and one responder reported, “I’m on scene with the reporting party. He stated he did see [an] aircraft crash.”
The break came when rescuers finally spotted the men and confirmed they were both alive in the water. “We have two victims in the water,” one responder said. “We’re just pulling them out now.” A short time later, the update turned more hopeful, with a crew reporting both were “alert, conscious” and that everyone on board had been accounted for.
Tiffany gave a lot of credit to Boltz, who had a background as an Air Force pilot trainer and made the call to raise the landing gear before touching down. That move likely kept the plane from flipping across the water, and Tiffany said it may have been the difference between a terrifying landing and something far worse.
“He was savvy enough and quick enough to think about, ‘We’ve got to make sure and pull that landing gear up,’” Tiffany said. “He did that, and it might have saved us.” He later estimated the plane was still moving 70 to 80 mph when it struck the lake, describing the crash like “a fast-moving car crash.”
Wausau Mayor Doug Diny, who also has a military flying background, praised the pilot for keeping the situation from turning into a fatal disaster. “The last thing anyone wants to do as a pilot is put the aircraft in the water at night,” Diny said, underscoring just how ugly the odds were once the engine quit.
Both men were treated at Aspirus Wausau Hospital and later released. Tiffany said a CT scan showed no obvious concussion, though doctors told him to watch for symptoms and stay out of the cockpit for several days.
Even after the crash, Tiffany sounded focused on moving forward. He canceled a trip to Washington, D.C., but said he plans to get back on the campaign trail Monday, insisting the close call will not shake his run for governor. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating what caused the Beechcraft Bonanza to lose power, while the submerged plane remains in Lake Wausau.
Reaction from around Wisconsin came quickly, including praise from House Speaker Mike Johnson, who posted on X that he was grateful no one was hurt and glad his friend was safe. Tiffany, who represents Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, is facing Democratic Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley in November, and even his opponent expressed relief that both men survived.
