BY LAURA MOYER
Sage McGirk was one of the last sky divers out of the plane in a jump a week ago to honor a deceased friend.
He remembers his parachute opening normally as he soared toward his landing spot on an Orange County field.
His next clear memory is of waking up at the University of Virginia hospital in Charlottesville, heading into a second surgery for a badly broken left arm.
McGirk, 32, a resident of the city of Fairfax, spoke by phone yesterday from his parents' home in Vienna, where he's recovering after being released from the hospital earlier in the week.
Though he doesn't remember much of the incident, McGirk said his fellow sky divers have told him what happened June 13.
Most of the group had landed already, after jumping to pay tribute to their late friend Chris Santiago.
McGirk and another diver were still about 20 feet off the ground when a plane attempting a low flyover tangled the canopy and lines of McGirk's chute in its propeller.
Friends told McGirk later that he was lifted several feet before he dropped to the ground. McGirk estimated that he fell about 30 feet.
He has been told he was out cold for several minutes as rescue workers placed him in an ambulance, and that he was semiconscious and combative on the ride to the hospital.
He doesn't remember any of that--just that he awakened in the hospital and saw his mother, Mary Kendell, there.
"Everybody was in fear," he said.
His left arm had an open fracture, and he had already had one surgery to clean it. He was on his way in for a second surgery to repair the bone.
McGirk, who turned 32 in the hospital last Monday, said he has metal plates holding his arm together and expects to be in a cast for about 12 weeks. He's also wearing a neck brace for a soft-tissue injury.
McGirk is a systems engineer for a traffic-monitoring company but doesn't know when he'll be able to get back to work.
Though for now he's staying with his parents, Mary and James Kendell, he said he's able to get around and hopes he'll soon return to his own home in Fairfax.
He has 12 years' sky-diving experience, and he said he has never had anything go wrong before.
"It was a normal weekend thing for me," McGirk said.
The pilot, 54-year-old Robert Mehl of Arlington, has been charged with reckless operation of an aircraft, according to Virginia State Police.
Attempts to reach him by phone and e-mail were unsuccessful yesterday.
Laura Moyer: 540/374-5417
Email: lmoyer@freelancestar.com