Wisconsin congressman Tom Tiffany survives emergency water landing in Lake Wausau

On a routine flight home from a campaign stop, Wisconsin Congressman Tom Tiffany found himself confronting one of aviation's most unforgiving moments — an engine failure over open water. The aircraft went down on Lake Wausau, but the lake's surface, cold and unforgiving as it was, proved kinder than the alternatives. Tiffany swam free, rescuers arrived swiftly, and what might have been a tragedy became instead a reminder of how thin the margin is between the ordinary and the catastrophic in the lives of those who govern.