Popular song lyrics at this time of year say "you’d better watch out," but at Norad they take Christmas Eve more seriously than most.
The job of watching out for Santa on Dec. 24 falls to the same people who monitor North American skies the other 364 days of the year — the North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad).
It all started with a typo more than a half-century ago.
In 1955, a department store advertisement in a Colorado Springs newspaper gave the wrong phone number for children to talk to Santa at the Sears Toyland.
Instead, the children were ringing through to the operations hotline for the then Continental Air Defence Command, a predecessor of the bi-national Norad command that was created in 1958.
The American director of operations at the time, Col. Harry Shoup, heard his calling to pitch in as an elf and made the best of the mistake: he told his staff to check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole.
Children who called the number from then on were given updates on his location.
Tracking Santa in 2012 has become a major undertaking for Norad, with 1,250 volunteers on duty to provide updates to the public and media.
The tradition of a telephone hotline remains, but a countdown clock, videos and other information are also available on This website:www.shamimparvej.blogspot.com
Magical flight
Faced with the eternal question of how St. Nicholas can pull it all off in one night, Norad researchers suggest Santa "functions within his own time-space continuum.
That poses a real challenge for the two teams of Canadian CF-18 pilots assigned to escort him through Canadian airspace Monday night.
"Santa travels at the speed of one T [in layman’s terms, a twinkling of an eye]," explains Eruebi. "Santa usually slows down the sleigh when Norad pilots are approaching, and he likes to wave and acknowledge the pilots when they tip their wing to show their respect.
"The main reason we [give Santa a fighter jet escort] is to treat him like the VIP that he is and, of course, to capture a few images of him in action," Eruebi explains. "He slows down to allow our fighters to catch up and he humours us. He appears to like posing for the camera."
On behalf of a five-year old reader in Ottawa, CBC News asked the air force what Santa’s fighter jet escort does while he's on the roof of each house.
The CF-18s, Eruebi says, "simply wait."
"Santa does a strange manoeuvre just before he disappears into a home through the chimney," Eruebi says. "He switches back to the speed of one T and he's gone."
"The main reason we [give Santa a fighter jet escort] is to treat him like the VIP that he is and, of course, to capture a few images of him in action," Eruebi explains. "He slows down to allow our fighters to catch up and he humours us. He appears to like posing for the camera."
On behalf of a five-year old reader in Ottawa, CBC News asked the air force what Santa’s fighter jet escort does while he's on the roof of each house.
The CF-18s, Eruebi says, "simply wait."
"Santa does a strange manoeuvre just before he disappears into a home through the chimney," Eruebi says. "He switches back to the speed of one T and he's gone."
No comments:
Post a Comment