Santa Claus doesn’t need to worry about recent mysterious drone sightings over New Jersey, a U.S. Air Force general said Tuesday, setting the annual tradition of “tracking” Saint Nick into action.
Gen. Gregory Guillot’s reassurance comes as Santa and his reindeer stop in Russia and Iran after visiting countries in the East, including Japan, North Korea and Indonesia, reports the joint U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). It was in response to what happened.
According to trackers, at 0100 GMT on Christmas Day, Santa was heading north through Brazil towards Guyana.
Santa’s trip this year comes after weeks of mysterious alleged drone sightings in the US state of New Jersey, even though many of the reported incidents were proven false. It aroused curiosity around the world.
“Of course we’re concerned about drones and everything else in the air,” NORAD Commander Guillot told Fox News. “However, we do not anticipate any difficulties regarding drones to Santa this year.”
NORAD’s Santa tracking device dates back to 1955. At the time, a newspaper ad in Colorado listed a phone number to connect children with Santa, but they were mistakenly directed to the Joint Forces Central hotline.
When Col. Harry Shoup, then director of operations, answered the phone, he quickly realized that the child calling had the wrong number.
“But (he) didn’t want to upset him, so he started talking to the young child and gave him information about Santa’s whereabouts,” said Royal Canadian Air Force Maj. Gen. William Radiff, NORAD’s current director of operations. he told AFP on Tuesday.
“Then he talked to the rest of the staff that was there and said, ‘Please, I’m going to get a call today… so let’s get started.'”
all over the world
Interest is spreading all over the world. Last year, NORAD’s modernized Santa tracking website, Noradsanta.org, which includes a 3D map showing Santa’s movements in real time and a ticker showing the number of presents delivered, received 20.6 million visits. , more than 400,000 calls were made. A toll-free number, according to Radif.
“We get calls from all over the world, and they want to know where Santa is,” he says.
When not spreading Christmas cheer, NORAD conducts aerospace and maritime control and warning operations. This includes monitoring missile launches from North Korea, something that was probably on Santa’s mind as he guided his reindeer-drawn sleigh over Pyongyang.
Embracing the Christmas spirit, Rudif said one of the reasons NORAD’s infrared-enabled satellites are able to monitor Santa’s progress is because “Rudolph’s nose gives off the same signal, so we can use that to track Santa around the world.” We are tracking it.”
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second person ever to walk on the moon, said on social media that NORAD has “always done a great job monitoring Santa’s navigation and heading in the sky.” spoke in the media.
Just like last Christmas, this year too, US President Joe Biden took calls from children and joined in on the NORAD fun.
Bar/MD
