SICK! See How This Reporter Treated Tom Tiffany’s Plane Crash

When a small aircraft loses power on approach, survival depends on disciplined airmanship and clear-headed execution; that is precisely what unfolded over Lake Wausau, where Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany and his pilot ditched a four-seat Bonanza and swam to safety before rescue.

The Short Version

Tiffany reported the aircraft lost power on approach to Wausau Downtown Airport, prompting an emergency water landing in Lake Wausau.
Both occupants exited as the airplane began to submerge, swam to a shallow area, and were rescued by boat; Tiffany thanked the pilot and first responders.
Tiffany sustained minor injuries, including a laceration above his right eye that required stitches, and was treated and released the same night.
Authorities identified the airplane as a four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza; FAA and NTSB were notified and will investigate.

What happened over Lake Wausau

On a Saturday evening flight home from a political dinner, Tom Tiffany reported that his airplane lost power as it neared Wausau Downtown Airport. The pilot executed an emergency water landing—an intentional ditching—on Lake Wausau. According to Tiffany’s public statement, the aircraft began to submerge after touchdown; both men exited, swam to a shallow area, and awaited responders who arrived by boat. Local outlets reported that emergency crews transported the pair to a nearby hospital for evaluation and treatment of minor injuries. Tiffany later said he received stitches for a laceration above his right eye and was released that night.

Authorities and contemporaneous reporting identified the airplane as a four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza, a high-performance single-engine aircraft with retractable landing gear and a reputation—like any complex piston single—for demanding proficiency from its pilots. The aircraft remained in the lake pending recovery at the time of initial reports, while county authorities said the FAA and NTSB had been notified and would handle the aviation investigation.

How a powerless approach becomes a survivable ditching

Engine power loss near the airport forces a pilot into pure energy management: convert altitude and airspeed into glide range, pick a reachable landing area aligned with the wind, and fly the airplane all the way to a controlled touchdown. Over water, survivability hinges on a few specific techniques: maintain best-glide speed to preserve control authority, keep the wings level through the flare to avoid cartwheeling, and touch down parallel to any visible swells to minimize deceleration forces. A Bonanza, with its relatively slick airframe, carries speed well; that helps reach the intended touchdown point but demands precise airspeed control to avoid skipping or porpoising on contact. Post-ditch egress requires quick orientation, unfastening restraints, opening doors or windows before submersion increases pressure differentials, and evacuating with reference to a fixed point—then flotation and swimming if rescue craft are not immediately alongside.

What Tiffany described tracks that sequence. A powerless approach, an intentional touchdown on the lake, immediate evacuation as the airframe settled, a swim to shallow water, then rescue by boat and transfer to a local hospital for minor-injury care. He publicly thanked both the pilot and first responders for their speed and professionalism, the two ingredients that most often separate an incident from a tragedy.

Why outlets converge on “survived, treated, released”—and the technical story takes longer

Aviation investigations unfold on a clock very different from breaking news. Initial details flow from the people on board, local responders, and airport or county officials. The NTSB’s process then begins: an initial notification, on-scene documentation, a preliminary factual report typically within days, and a final report—often a year or more later for general aviation—stating probable cause and any contributory factors. The Board cautions that preliminary reports capture facts gathered on scene and explicitly do not assign cause; journalists and the public should resist the impulse to infer why an engine failed from day-one fragments.

That is why early reporting coheres around clear, consequential facts: the power loss reported by those aboard, the controlled water landing, two survivors, minor injuries, rescue timeline, and the handoff to federal investigators. Determining whether the precipitating event was fuel starvation, ignition or fuel-system malfunction, carburetion or induction icing, mechanical failure inside the engine, or something in the propeller or controls, requires data not available shoreside: teardown findings, maintenance records, witness statements, and sometimes engine-monitor downloads. Those arrive later—properly so.

The aircraft, the setting, and the survival factors

The Beechcraft Bonanza lineage dates to the postwar era; K35 variants and later models are known for speed, range, and complex systems. With retractable gear and a variable-pitch propeller, emergency procedures place a premium on checklist discipline and memory items: mixture, prop, throttle, fuel selector, fuel pump, magnetos, and securing for landing if restart attempts fail. Over water, pilots brief passengers on egress, designate who calls 911 if a phone remains reachable, and plan for flotation. Lake Wausau—broad, relatively close to the airport traffic pattern—offers a flat, obstruction-free surface when an engine fails within glide distance. That geography, plus tempered water conditions on a typical evening and quick municipal response times, improves outcomes for a ditching compared with forced landings over forest or structures.

Survival dynamics often turn on two numbers: vertical speed at impact and time to rescue. A controlled flare reduces sink rate; immediate notification shrinks exposure to hypothermia or exhaustion. In this case, local reporting places the rescue near 9:05 p.m., a tight window that likely helped keep injuries minor.

Wisconsin congressman and Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany said he suffered minor injuries after a plane he was in made an emergency landing Saturday night on Lake Wausau in central Wisconsin. https://t.co/27XsLR0ywr

— KRDO13 (@KRDO_13) September 13, 2026

Language matters: crash, emergency landing, ditching

Different outlets used different labels—“plane crash,” “emergency landing,” “emergency water landing”—for the same event. In operational terms, a ditching is a deliberate water landing when continued flight is not possible; a crash implies loss of control or an uncommanded impact. Early in a story, that nuance is easy to blur, but it has real analytical value: a successful ditching reflects aircraft control maintained to touchdown, which correlates strongly with survivability. Here, the reported sequence—power loss, water landing, egress, swim, rescue—describes a ditching, not a high-energy crash. The aircraft’s presence in the lake pending recovery is consistent with normal post-incident handling for general aviation water landings.

What to expect next

From here, the formal machinery engages. FAA notification triggers regulatory follow-up; the NTSB will decide the level of investigation, document the site and aircraft condition, and issue a preliminary factual report that captures who, what, when, and where—but not why. The final report, which can take 12 to 24 months in general aviation cases, will identify probable cause and contributing factors, citing evidence from engine and airframe examinations, records, and interviews. Until then, the responsible public takeaway is the one already supported by the record: a Bonanza lost power near Wausau, the pilot ditched in Lake Wausau, both occupants swam clear and were rescued, and injuries were minor.