Wisconsin Rep. Tom Tiffany spoke out late Monday about the harrowing plane crash that left him with 12 stitches and a story of survival he attributes to divine intervention.
Tiffany, 67, appeared on Fox News with a visible gash above his eye, the only injury he sustained when the four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza he was riding in lost power and plunged into Lake Wausau last Saturday. The Republican congressman, who is currently running for governor, had been returning from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner and was bound for Wausau Downtown Airport when the aircraft failed.
“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 seatbelt as tight as possible,'” Tiffany told the network.
“It was like staring into the abyss. And you don’t know how far down it is,” he added.
The pilot, who has not been publicly identified, managed to keep the aircraft upright as it struck the water hard and fast. Tiffany pulled his seatbelt as tight as he could in those final seconds before impact.
“I pulled that seatbelt as tight as I could, and it was just a couple seconds later, we hit the water, and we hit it hard,” he recounted.
The two men looked at each other immediately after the crash and asked if they were both okay. The pilot, who required four stitches, was otherwise unhurt. With the damaged plane beginning to sink, they forced the door open and swam toward shore, where local law enforcement and first responders rescued them.
“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 entire incident happened so quickly that the congressman found it difficult to piece together afterward. No one else was on board the aircraft. The cause of the sudden power loss remains under investigation.
Tiffany has represented Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District since 2020, when he won the seat previously held by Sean Duffy, who now serves as President Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary. He is currently campaigning against Democrat David Crowley in the November gubernatorial race. A poll conducted since the August 11 primary showed Crowley leading among likely voters 49 to 44, though the two were tied at 44-44 among registered voters.