Jc Chasez "jumped" to help save a one-year-old baby from a flying sun umbrella.

The mother of the child, accessories designer Netali Nissim, has praised the former N*Sync singer for his quick-thinking when a parasol was uprooted by a helicopter which landed nearby the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, Florida, and went spinning towards her daughter Shirel on New Year's Day (01.01.12).

She told the New York Post newspaper: "The umbrella was a few centimetres away from my daughter, and he jumped in the middle of the two.

"The umbrella came to rest on his shoulder. If he wouldn't have jumped in the middle, I cannot even think what would have happened."

Netali will be forever grateful to JC, 35, for protecting Shirel because the unusual incident could have left her baby seriously injured.

She told People magazine: "Shirel is safe because of him. I want to tell him thank you from the bottom of my heart. If it had not been for him, my daughter could have been seriously hurt."