The emergency management worker who sent a false alert of an incoming missile to more than 1 million people in Hawaii has been temporarily reassigned, state officials said Monday.
The incident occurred during a shift change at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency on Saturday, when the worker mistakenly hit a button during a test to alert people to an inbound missile.
Richard Rapoza, spokesman for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, said the worker responsible for sending out the missile alert has now been reassigned to a job that doesn’t have access to the system. The agency is also conducting an investigation into what occurred.
“All we will say is that the individual has been temporarily reassigned within our Emergency Operations Center pending the outcome of our internal investigation, and it is currently in a role that does not provide access to the warning system,” Rapoza said, according to reports.
In addition to the internal probe, the Federal Communications Commission is also conducting an investigation into what happened Saturday morning.
The missile alert was mistakenly sent out when the worker accessed a drop-down menu on the computer that had two options: “Test missile alert” and “Missile alert.”
The worker hit the second option, sending an alert that there was an inbound missile to 1.4 million people in Hawaii at around 8:07 a.m. local time.
“BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” the message read.
The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency addressed the incorrect alert on Facebook and Twitter in posts published 13 minutes later, notifying people there was “NO missile threat to Hawaii.”
NO missile threat to Hawaii.
— Hawaii EMA (@Hawaii_EMA) January 13, 2018
But it wasn’t until 38 minutes after the initial alert was sent, at 8:45 a.m., that a follow-up message was sent to cellphones.
“False alarm,” the message read. “There is no threat or danger to the State of Hawaii.”
