OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — Wisconsin's Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany and his pilot survived after his plane made an emergency water landing in Lake Wausau.
NBC26 spoke with local flight instructors in Oshkosh about what risks a maneuver like that entails.
Jamie Pittman is the founder of Discover Flight School in Oshkosh and a volunteer FAA Safety Team representative. Having flown for 17 years, he has survived several in-flight emergencies himself. Pittman said what Tiffany survived is called a ditching — any controlled landing made in water by an aircraft not designed for it.
"It's estimated that roughly 95% of ditchings on splashdown are survivable. The risk for more serious injury happens once the airplane is in the water. It's estimated that roughly 75-80% of ditchings are then survivable, with the main risk being drowning," Pittman said.
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Pittman said pilots don't specifically train for ditching because the risk outweighs any gain, though he noted there are decades of research on ditching that allow pilots to mentally prepare.
"Well, while I was surprised, I was also very thankful that everybody made it out OK. While some of the statistics that I've named make it seem like ditching is relatively survivable, there's obviously a lot of risk involved, and the outcomes aren't always as good as what they experienced," Pittman said.
One of Pittman's students, Collin Kao, regularly flies over water during training, including over Lake Winnebago, and said he always remains prepared for an emergency ditch.
"When you're landing at runway 27, you kind of have to go over water at some point. That's a time when you're low to the ground and also over water. Usually you're within gliding distance of the airport, but it's still something you have to think about," Kao said.
In a press release, the Tiffany campaign said the investigation into the loss of power will be handled by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board. The emergency landing comes roughly 50 days before the November 3 midterm elections.
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