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[webfact]

Hawaii civil defence employee mistook drill for actual missile attack

By David Shepardson and Steve Gorman

 

An electronic sign reads "There is no threat" in Oahu, Hawaii, U.S., after a false emergency alert that said a ballistic missile was headed for Hawaii, in this January 13, 2018 photo obtained from social media. Instagram/@sighpoutshrug/via REUTERS

 

(Reuters) - The Hawaii civil defence employee who issued the false missile alarm that stirred panic across the state last month mistook an alert drill for an actual attack, confused by conflicting messages used in the simulation, investigators said on Tuesday.

 

The employee has since been fired, and the top two civilian officials at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HEMA), administrator Vern Miyagi and executive officer Toby Clairmont, resigned in a shakeup stemming from the scare, it was announced at a news conference in Honolulu.

 

There were also proceedings to suspend without pay a mid-level agency manager who played a major role in devising the procedures and checklists for HEMA's missile alerts and drills, said Bruce Oliveira, a retired National Guard general who led a review of the Jan. 13 mishap.

 

The investigation found the system for activating a missile alert and conducting emergency drills was deeply flawed, lacking sufficient clarity, fail-safe controls or even a pre-programmed way of issuing a false alarm notice to the public.

 

Those shortcomings came into play the day a supervisor decided to initiate a drill during a weekend shift change, leading a warning system officer to errantly transmit a live missile alert to mobile phones and broadcast stations statewide.

 

The message, issued amid heightened tension over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, stated: "EMERGENCY ALERT BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL."

 

It went uncorrected for 38 minutes and triggered hysteria and confusion across the Pacific island state.

 

Oliveira said the employee who activated the false alarm was a 10-year veteran of HEMA with a history of job performance issues, including twice confusing drills with real emergencies.

 

He acknowledged the employee, who had been "counselled and corrected" for past issues, had remained assigned to the warning system team despite misgivings by co-workers over the years.

 

During December's failure, according to the employee's written account, he misunderstood a simulated missile notice recorded by a supervisor and played over a speaker phone to mimic an actual call from the U.S. military's Pacific Command.

 

Following procedures he thought were correct, he activated the state's missile launch alert from a "drop-down" computer menu and, believing an attack was imminent, clicked "yes" when a system software prompt asked, "Are you sure that you want to send this Alert?"

 

The simulated missile warning played over the phone included the words: "This is not a drill," and the repeated phrase, "Exercise, exercise, exercise."

 

Five others in the centre said they heard the "exercise" phrase, which came at the start and end of the message, Oliveira said. The system officer at the terminal said he only heard "This is not a drill."

 

Moments later, realizing he had done the wrong thing, he "became confused, he froze, and other employees had to take over his responsibilities," Oliveira said.

 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which oversees all U.S. wireless alert systems, issued its own report on Tuesday, concluding the false alarm stemmed from human errors, confused wording in the drill and lack of adequate supervision.

 

Hawaii Governor David Ige, whose response to the incident was called into question, said changes had been implemented so there would be no repeat of the Jan. 13 incident.

 

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington, D.C. and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by David Gregorio, Toni Reinhold)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-01-31

[mania]

More BS

 

Because

Quote

It went uncorrected for 38 minutes and triggered hysteria and confusion across the Pacific island state.

"IF" this were remotely true why go dead silent for 38 minutes after the mistake?

 

No answering phone calls from radio,television, any news reporters much less citizens

 

Lastly we have since all noticed it is reported on various sites a ICBM takes roughly 37 minutes from N Korea to Hawaii

http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korean-nuclear-strike-united-states-arrival-times-2017-8

Edited January 31, 2018 by mania

[Srikcir]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

The employee has since been fired

A little clarification:

"State officials also revealed that the employee who was terminated on Friday “has performance issues,” and had confused drills with real-world events in at least two previous incidents. The report said colleagues had complained about such issues in the past."

https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/30/16952202/hawaii-false-ballistic-missile-alert

But the FCC concluded "the false alarm stemmed from human errors, confused wording in the drill and lack of adequate supervision." Those are not all (if any) employee performance failures. I could see suspension or reassignment to lower grade duties, but not firing. 

Expect to hear more from the employee.

[KKr]

13 hours ago, mania said:

More BS

 

Because

"IF" this were remotely true why go dead silent for 38 minutes after the mistake?

 

No answering phone calls from radio,television, any news reporters much less citizens

 

Simple, they went into hiding and came out when nothing happened on ETA

[Stargeezr]

The guy did not hear, exercise stated 3 times like those around him did. He  deserves to be fired.    It was a shame that so many were scared out of their wits, because someone could not do their job properly. After all this guy was not  working at some fast food joint, his was a responsible job, that required caution, and good sense,  not to be Trigger happy with the buttons.

Geezer

[unblocktheplanet]

For all Trump's nuclear bluster, this incident goes a long way to show nobody can ever be prepared for nuclear war.