Well, it wasn’t Tom Brady to the rescue, it was backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert and his two brothers. They were jet skiing in Hillsborough Bay when they heard a noise to the south. They headed toward the sound and came upon a sinking helicopter with several people in need of rescue. Gabbert pulled two people out of the water and put them on his jet ski. His brothers helped a third person and when the authorities arrived, they saved the fourth person.
The crash occurred during a tour of the areas. They heard a loud bang and the helicopter lost power and the young pilot made an emergency on the water. Tampa Bay police officer Dan Spears was impressed by the rescue and even made Blaine Gabbert an honorary member of their marine unit.
“It was a pretty impressive feat, no doubt,” Spears said. “They were very calm — great job on that … One of the most dangerous circumstances on an aircraft is a water landing just due to the inversion of a helicopter, and trying to escape that, and not get trapped in, so it was a very amazing circumstance that everybody got out.”
Buccaneers Coach Todd Bowles thought the rescue was outstanding and said: “Any time you can find a guy to drop everything and go help somebody else that that he doesn’t even know without even thinking about it and take their life into their own hands and helping somebody else save their lives, that says a lot about the guy,” he said. “And Blaine did that.”
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