It’s only mid-December, but the Voodoo Flight crew in the Sgt. David L. Pitcher Building at CFB North Bay is preparing for arguably the most important mission of the year.
The 21 Aerospace Control and Warning Squadron is training for December 24th, when they will play a huge role in assisting and escorting Santa Claus across Canadian airspace.
Canadian and American members of NORAD have been tracking Santa’s Journey for the past 67 years from various locations in both countries.
Major Vanessa Larochelle-Meilleur is the Mission Crew Commander who will be in charge of the important tracking mission which will take place at CFB North Bay.
"It is my first time this year and I am really honoured and excited," she told BayToday.
"The mission is similar to what we do every day. We protect North America 365 days a year. But the team wants to make sure to execute properly on the 24 of December so we continuously train for this mission."
This year, the NORAD techs on duty will be tasked to locate and track Santa on December 24th using radars, satellites and infrared sensors. Once he is located within Canadian airspace, Santa will be escorted by RCAF CF-188 Hornet aircraft from both 3 Wing Bagotville, Que. and 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alta.
Larochelle-Meilleur says one of the big challenges for the crews is that Santa never files a flight plan for his incredible journey.
"That means we will have to use all of our tools to first detect him and then identify him," she said.
"One is we use satellite with infrared technology that is how we identify Rudolph's nose to show up on our system because of all of the heat that it generates. Then we will use our radar from the warning system along the northern coast of Canada. That is how we will pick up the sleigh, pick up the reindeer.
"Then again since Santa does not file a flight plan we will try civilian air traffic control to see if they know and if they don't know that's when we will launch our CF-18's," she continued about the mission.
This is not a new mission for NORAD as they have been tracking Santa since way back in 1955.
Anyone interested in tracking Santa’s journey on Christmas eve can do so by going to the NORAD website at: www.noradsanta.org
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