Blaine Gabbert of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers warms up previous to their recreation in opposition to the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in 2020 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Blaine Gabbert of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers warms up previous to their recreation in opposition to the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in 2020 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Blaine Gabbert, typically within the background as Tom Brady’s backup, is now gaining nationwide consideration for serving to rescue 4 individuals within the water after a helicopter crash in Florida.

Gabbert was jet snowboarding together with his two brothers in Hillsborough Bay, Fla., when he heard a “faint noise” to the west, he mentioned at a press conference Friday. He and his brothers rotated and noticed what seemed like a “crew boat in the water that had broken up into four pieces” and two yellow life jackets.

It was really a crash-landed helicopter. And it had been carrying a pilot and three passengers — a mom and father of their 60s and their son who’s round Gabbert’s age, he mentioned. The pilot had carried out an emergency touchdown into the water close to the Davis Islands Yacht Club after the helicopter misplaced energy, in keeping with the Tampa Police Department.

“It looked like they were in duress. We raced over there,” Gabbert mentioned.

The 33-year-old mentioned instructed the passengers the way to inflate the life jackets primarily based on his personal expertise on the water and received them on his jet ski as shortly as potential. He was in a position to get two of the passengers on his jet ski, whereas his brothers took care of one other.

“It was pretty chilly yesterday in the water, so you didn’t want to have them in there for too long,” Gabbert added.

The pilot was nonetheless in water when first responders arrived seconds later, he mentioned.

“I was in the right place, right time,” he mentioned. “The credit really goes out to the Tampa PD, fire department, sheriff’s department, because they were there within five seconds. It was pretty remarkable.”

Gabbert said the passengers had been coated in oil and visibly shaken up, however he was grateful he was in a position to get the passengers to security.

Tampa Police Interim Chief Lee Bercaw mentioned he was giving Gabbert a particular honor.

“All the work you did out there, there’s no reason why we don’t make you an honorary member of our marine patrol,” he mentioned on the press convention.

Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles showered Gabbert with compliments for his heroic actions: “Anytime you can find a guy to drop everything and go help somebody else he doesn’t know without even thinking about it and take their life into their own hands and helping someone else save their lives, that says a lot about a guy, and Blaine did that.”