Floating in open water after the helicopter he and his parents had been riding on made an emergency landing in the water off the Davis Islands on Thursday night, Hunter Hupp had no idea who the three were men who quickly approached on two jet skis as he walked through the water.
Hupp, 28, had spent the previous hour on a return flight to the beaches as a Christmas present, but he and the other helicopter passengers heard a loud noise in the rotor above and had to land in the water, about 200 meters from shore.
“Let me tell you, helicopters sink very fast,” Hupp said Friday morning, grateful to wake up another morning with his parents. “We learned that pretty quickly.”
Photo credit: Hunter Hupp
Hupp’s parents, Wes and Lisa, got out of the helicopter as it took on water, as did the pilot, but Hupp was the last out, unable to get free for about a minute before getting out and to rise to the surface. The four of them were floating together, only inches from the helicopter appearing above the water, contemplating waiting for help or trying to swim to land fully clothed, then almost immediately saw two men on jet skis approach.
One of them, as confirmed by a source close to the Buccaneerswas the backup quarterback for Tampa Bay Blaine Gabbert, who lives on Davis Island and was part of the rescue effort. Hupp said the two men helped his father onto one jet ski and he and his mother onto the other, staying with them and coordinating how to bring in more people than the jet skis were supposed to carry.
“They slowly brought us back to shore, a sandy beach near the yacht club, and hung around for a while, it was really nice,” Hupp said. “We exchanged pleasantries as we reached flat ground. They were really an asset in helping us out as we were the only ones there for a while. It was a handshake and a huge ‘Thank you very much’. They went out for a nice walk in the afternoon and came across a stuck family of helicopters.”
Tampa police arrived in a boat within five minutes, he said, but the presence of the two jet skis soon stopped them from spending too much time alone in the water, unsure how long they could stay afloat.
“We think about all the assumptions,” said Hupp, who lives in Philadelphia and works in sales. “What happened obviously wasn’t great, but we handled what happened pretty well.”
Gabbert, 33, is in his 12th season in the NFL and fourth with the Bucs, although he hasn’t played a single time this season as the best backup in Tom Brady. The Bucs have been busy preparing for Sunday’s game against carolinawhere a win can clinch a second straight division title for Tampa Bay, but that’s not all Gabbert did on Thursday.
Hupp said he had no idea one of his rescuers was a NFL the quarterback, as they hadn’t exchanged more than first names, but said a description of Gabbert, he said “I think that was the one my mom was hanging on to.”
“My mom said she was hoping to meet Tom Brady while we were here,” he said. “I think she got close.”
Tampa police say a helicopter had to make an emergency landing just after 5 p.m. Thursday due to engine failure as it approached Peter O. Knight Airport, Utah. southern end of the Davis Islands, at Hillsborough Bay, at the northeast end of Tampa Bay. The initial police report was only that the four on board had survived and that agencies were working to pull the submerged helicopter out of the water.
Gabbert has a home on the Davis Islands, a community where several Tampa Bay professional athletes, including Brady, call home.
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Greg Auman is FOX Sports’ NFC South reporter, covering the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He’s in his 10th season covering the Bucs and the NFL full-time, after spending time at the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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