Local military members are gearing up to help Santa make his trek safely across Canada on Christmas Eve.
21 Aerospace Control & Warning Squadron conducted an exercise earlier this week to ensure they are fully prepared to track Santa Claus on his festive journey.
Captain Adam Murray says the team has been training hard preparing for Voodoo Flight, which will locate and track Santa using radars, satellites, and infrared sensors.
“He’s typically not one to file a flight plan,” says Capt. Murray. “What we’ll have to do is scramble some of our alert fighter jets, the CF-18 Hornets, to go intercept and visually confirm that it’s Santa Claus.”
Santa will then be escorted across Canada by those jets from 3 Wing Bagotville, Quebec and 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alberta.
You can follow along online at noradsanta.org.
“It’s live right now,” says Capt. Murray. “If you go on you can see a countdown to Christmas and hopefully when we get closer to the date everyone will be able to track Santa Claus as he flies across the world and particularly when he gets into Canada.”
The website also features a holiday countdown, games, activities, and more.
NORAD has been tracking Santa since December 24, 1955, when local Colorado Springs kids started calling the Air Operations Center for Santa Claus due to a misprinted newspaper ad.
The phone number rang into the Continental Air Defense Command, now referred to as NORAD, which has since turned the event into an annual program that is recognized worldwide.