Santa cleared for take-off to get crack fighter escort (moved from ATSNN), page 1

Santa will begin his journey at 3:00 a.m. EST. Dec 24th, there will be two CF-18 Hornet interceptors based out of Quebec, that will be on stand by to meet Santa and his air party as he is expected to cross into Canadian air space over eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, there will be another pair of war planes based out of Alberta that will see Santa across the west coast presumably en route to Asia, the statement said.

WINNIPEG, Canada (AFP) - Santa Claus is coming to town ... and in these uncertain times, he's being offered a jet fighter escort.

NORAD

Canadian pilots seconded to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) who normally spend their nights scouring the skies for intruders, will scramble on Christmas Eve for a special mission.
"Santa has communicated to NORAD that he intends to begin his journey at 3.00 a.m. EST, Dec 24," the Canadian armed forces said in a tongue-in-cheek statement.
NORAD plans to use special 'SantaCams' to track the gift-laden sleigh pulled by Rudolf and his reindeer cronies across the night sky.
"At Santa's request, millions of curious children will be able to closely follow his progress and view near real-time updates through special digital photographs and technical information compiled by NORAD," the release said.
Pictures and Santa's progress will be posted on a radar map on a website (www.noradsanta.org) available in French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese and English.

Link

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

I think it �s nice to see a bit of fun for the little ones of this world, NORAD has been tracking Santa and his reindeer cronies across the night sky�s for 50 years now, ever since a Colorado newspaper mistakenly printed a phone number for a �Santa Hotline� the number turned out to be the �Operations Hotline� for NORAD. Military personal on duty at the time where very surprised to hear small children�s voices asking to speak to Santa.

Related News Links:

www.noradsanta.org...

[edit on 18/12/2004 by Sauron]