A BASE jumper was arrested late Wednesday after an after-dark parachute leap off the Foresthill Bridge near Auburn was spotted by the Placer County Sheriff’s helicopter.

Aaron Joseph McGovern was preparing to sail off the 730-foot-high span into the American River canyon, when the sheriff’s Falcon 30 crew spotted him as they passed the bridge on the lookout just before 8 p.m. for a suicidal woman reportedly somewhere on the deck.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Dena Erwin said Thursday that the crew trained the chopper’s high-powered search beam on McGovern’s jump and followed it down to a landing spot on a trail below.

McGovern, a 39-year-old Olympic Valley resident, reportedly attempted to run down the trail in a futile attempt to dodge the spotlight. He ran about a third of a mile along the trail to the Old Auburn-Foresthill Road, where he at first attempted to get into his vehicle, she said.

But McGovern then reversed course, ran up the trail again and was observed stashing his parachute gear in the bushes, Erwin said.

McGovern eventually hunkered down in another bushy area and refused to come out over the next 15 minutes as the Falcon 30 crew made amplified requests for him to surrender, she said.

The incident ended when McGovern emerged and was taken into custody on misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and taking part in an illegal recreational activity in a state park.

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