Hawaii Missile Alert Wasn’t Accidental, Officials Say, Blaming Worker<br />The mistake, which touched off panic and confusion across Hawaii on Jan. 13, occurred when the worker misinterpreted testing<br />instructions from a supervisor, according to the Federal Communications Commission and state officials in Hawaii.<br />WASHINGTON — The Hawaii emergency management services worker who sent a false alert warning of an incoming ballistic missile this month had a long history of poor performance<br />and sent the warning because he thought the state faced an actual threat, officials said on Tuesday.<br />Although other emergency management officials in Hawaii understood<br />that the state was conducting a drill at the time, the employee who sent the alert said in a written statement that he had believed there was a real emergency.<br />According to the Federal Communications Commission, the supervisor also erroneously said, “This is not a drill.”<br />According to Bruce Oliveira, the retired Army general who led the state investigation, the<br />message spoken by the shift leader did not adhere to the script outlined in the protocol.<br />Without going into detail, he said the Pacific Command was “using lessons from this event as an<br />opportunity to improve our internal processes as well as coordination with state authorities.”<br />Started in 2012, the Wireless Emergency Alert system grew from the decades-old Emergency Broadcast System used for television and radio alerts.<br />Believing the instructions were for a real emergency, the worker, who has not been identified,<br />sent the live alert to the cellphones of all Hawaii residents and visitors to the state.
