Hawaii Missile alert caused by human error

Prabhsimar Kaur

An emergency alert was sent out on Saturday which created a state of panic across the state.

The warning, stated, “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”  Officials later confirmed through media and a media release that one of the officials accidentally pushed the wrong button.

According to the press release by the Hawaii Emergency Agency – A routine internal test during a shift change was initiated. This was a test that involved the Emergency Alert System, the Wireless Emergency Alert, but no warning sirens. A warning test was triggered statewide by the State Warning Point, HI-EMA.

The Hawaii Emergency Agency responded soon on Twitter, stating “No missile alert to Hawaii.” The Honolulu police department was also notified about the false alarm.

The HI-EMA has taken certain measures to avoid this in future.

• Suspended future drills until HI-EMA has the full report.
• Instituted a two-person activation rule for test as well as actual missile launch notification.
• A cancellation command that can be done automatically that can be triggered within seconds of an error, has been put in place.

 

The Hawaii Emergency Agency would release a formal preliminary report of findings and corrective actions will be issued next week.