Other media sources report the Bears entered a portion of international airspace that Canada controls.
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Any idea what altitude these things operate at ? If nothing else wouldn't they be in violation of some ICAO regulation for entering controlled airspace without a clearance ?
190km (103nm) northeast of Tuktoyaktuk (if it's even reported correctly) would put them well within the Edmonton FIR and deep in to the Canadian Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the vicinity of NCA Track 32 and M454, tracks commonly used by commerical aircraft operating between North America and Asia.
International airspace is.... international. No one owns it. Even if a country is responsible to provide air traffic services within an FIR (Such as Edmonton is in this case), that FIR is not that country's airspace when over international waters. A country's territorial airspace is all airspace within 12 km of its coasts, so technically, to violate Canadian Airspace, a foreign aircraft has to come inside of 12 km (Edit: 12 miles, sorry) of Canada's coasts (Canada claims that airspace and waters in between the Arctic islands, even when more than 12 miles off the coast, are Canadian, something some other countries such as the US, does not recognize)
The Arctic Control area where the Bears operate, is uncontrolled from F180 to F270. The Northern Control area, is uncontrolled from F180 to F230.
About needing clearance when above and below these flight levels, I am not certain.