TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Buccaneers backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert played a vital role in rescuing four passengers after a helicopter crashed into the water Thursday afternoon near Davis Islands, police say.
Speaking at One Buc Place during a news conference, the 33-year-old said he was out on the water on Jet Skis with his two younger brothers who were visiting him from St. Louis.
The original plan was to show his brothers the yacht clubs near the south side of Davis Islands before things took a turn.
"I remember hearing a faint noise, so we turned around, left the yacht club, and I was looking to the west and seeing what almost looked like a crew boat in the water that had broken up into about four pieces," Gabbert said. "I remember seeing two yellow life jackets."
When Gabbert and his brothers approached the passengers, he said they looked in distress. The first person he came across was a 28-year-old man who told him that he was with his parents.
Officers responded around 5 p.m. to reports of a chopper submerged in the water near the Peter O. Knight Airport. Upon arrival, police found the helicopter in the water, about 200 yards from shore.
The pilot and their passengers left the airport around 4 p.m. for an hour-long helicopter tour of the Tampa Bay area. But at 5:07 p.m., when the chopper was returning to the airport, the pilot reportedly heard a loud noise before losing power.
The helicopter then crashed into the water.
The three passengers, a 62-year-old man, a 59-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man, were rescued and taken to shore by another person in a boat. The pilot, a 33-year-old man, was also rescued and taken to the shore by the Tampa Police Department's marine unit.
No one was injured in the crash, police said.
The 6-foot-4 quarterback said remaining calm throughout the entire situation was key in getting the passengers help and to safety.
"It's funny how time kind of slows down in those situations and I just tried to stay calm so I could do what somebody would do if I was in their [the passenger's] situation," Gabbert said. "The mother was visibly shaken up and their kid was probably the most shaken up. They were covered in oil, so it's not a fun sight. But I'm happy they all made it out alive."
When he first heard the noises from the passengers and saw the life jackets, Gabbert said he was expecting the worst to happen before he arrived to rescue them.
But after seeing that they were still alive, he used his experiences of being out on the water to bring them out to safety.
"Two of them [passengers] had life jackets but they weren't inflated so I told them to pull the rip cord to get the jacket going so they could float," Gabbert recalled. "I tried to get them on the Jet Skis as fast as I could to just get them out the water because it was pretty chilly in the water so I didn't want to have them in there for too long."
An officer with the Tampa Police Department presented Gabbert with a marine unit coin in honor of his heroics. He was also named an honorary member of TPD's marine patrol unit and received a token hat at the news conference.
Gabbert joined the Bucs in March 2019 and has served as a backup quarterback since then. He has been playing in the NFL for 11 years.