Hawaii's false missile alert: Worker believed attack was imminent

It took 38 minutes for the false alert to be corrected. Photo / AP

The emergency worker who sent a false public safety alert on January 13 warning of an imminent ballistic missile attack on Hawaii believed that a ballistic missile was truly bound for the state after mishearing a recorded message as part of an unscheduled drill, according to a preliminary investigation by federal officials.

This directly contradicts the explanations previously offered by Hawaii officials, who have said thealert was sent because the employee hit the wrong button on a drop-down menu.

This smartphone screen capture shows a false incoming ballistic missile emergency alert sent from the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency system on Saturday, January 13, 2018. Photo / AP

Authorities were apologetic after what Governor David Ige called "a terrifying day when our worst nightmares appeared to become a reality." Ige and other officials plan to speak later today about the findings of an internal state investigation into the incident.

A combination of human error and improper safeguards led the worker to deliberately send the alert message, which sowed widespread confusion and fear for 38 minutes, the Federal Communications Commission said in its report yesterday.

The mistake began with a night-shift supervisor who decided to test incoming day-shift workers with a spontaneous drill. The supervisor managing the day-shift workers appeared to be aware of the upcoming test but believed it was aimed at the outgoing night-shift workers. Thus the day-shift manager was not prepared to supervise the morning test, the FCC said.

As a result, there was a lack of supervision when the night-shift supervisor called the day-shift workers pretending to be the US military's Pacific Command, which is charged with detecting missile threats.

Hawaii Governor David Ige has described the day of the false alarm as 'a terrifying day when our worst nightmares appeared to become a reality'. Photo / AP

Following standard procedures, the night-shift supervisor posing as Pacific Command played a recorded message to the emergency workers warning them of the fake threat. The message included the phrase "Exercise, exercise, exercise." But the message inaccurately included the phrase "This is not a drill."

The worker who then sent the emergency alert failed to hear the "exercise" portion of the message and acted upon the "This is not a drill" part of the message that should not have been included, according to the report.

The mistake was not stopped by the Hawaii emergency management agency's computer systems because there is little difference between the user interface for submitting test alerts and the one for sending actual alerts.