Gus Hertz
Florida fisherman Gus Hertz will be honoured after saving three lives in two days (ABC News)

A man who saved three people's lives in two days while on a fishing holiday is being honoured by Florida officials.

Gus Hertz was on a vacation in the Gulf of Mexico when he looked out of the window of his condo in St Petersburg, Florida, only to see that a car had plunged into the water.

The driver had suffered a diabetic seizure and lost control of his car. Hertz leapt into the water along with a local fisherman, Kevin Daly.

He told ABC's Good Morning America: "Another three or four minutes and he would have floated out there and he would have drowned."

The following morning, Hertz was fishing when he saw a plane crash into the water nearby.

He said: "It started to descend and about 500 yards away I saw a huge splash, and it flipped over, and I thought 'Oh my gosh, here I go again'."

He dived into the water and dragged 74-year-old pilot Rodney Tyoe and a female passenger from the wrecked ultralight.

Tyoe's daughter told the Tampa Bay Times: "Bless his heart. He always seems to be in the right place at the right time."

St petersburg fire chief Lt Joel Granata said that the Hertz would be honoured at a special ceremony although Hertz claimed he did what anyone else would do and refused to describe himself as a hero.

The public reaction to Hertz's heroism comes as a stark contrast to the case of another have-a-go-hero in Moscow.

A man jumped into the Moscow river to save a man and woman trapped inside their car, only to later discover that his own vehicle had been stolen while he carried out the rescue.

While the 27-year-old driver of the crashed car drowned, his female passenger survived. The rescuer said he could not believe that he had been targeted by criminals.

He told LifeNews: "I don't even have apartment keys now. I wonder how I can get home."