News Article / December 2, 2013

By NORAD

The Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Region is set to track and escort Santa Claus during his annual visit to Canada and has selected four CF-18 fighter pilots for the high profile job.

Lieutenant-Colonel Darcy Molstad and Captain Sébastien Gorelov of 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron from 3 Wing Bagotville, Quebec, will conduct the first escort duties to welcome Santa into Canada when they join him off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.

As Santa zooms across Canada and approaches the Ontario-Manitoba border, escort duties will switch to Captain Rich Cohen and Captain Brian Kilroy of 409 Tactical Fighter Squadron from 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alberta.

Special NORAD SantaCams, positioned around the world, will take photos and video of Santa and his sleigh as he journeys around the world. The SantaCams instantly download the photo and video imagery so that it may be viewed by children around the world on the NORAD Tracks Santa website at: www.noradsanta.org on December 24.

Information will be available in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Mandarin.

As NORAD has done since 1955, its Canadian Air Defence Sector Operations Centre at 22 Wing in North Bay, Ontario, will alert NORAD when their radar and satellite systems detect Santa approaching North America.

On December 24, children can also receive updates on Santa's journey by calling the traditional "NORAD Tracks Santa" telephone hotline at 1-877-HI NORAD (1-877-446-6723), or by emailing NORAD at noradtrackssanta@gmail.com.

In 2012, the NORAD Tracks Santa website received over 22 million unique visitors from nearly all the countries and territories around the world. NORAD Tracks Santa Facebook page neared 1.2 million followers, and over 129,000 people followed Santa on Twitter. On December 24 alone, NORAD "Santa Trackers" answered more than 114,000 telephone calls and received over 9,000 emails over a 25 hour period.