Hawaii False Missile Alarm: Blame Put on Employee Who ‘Pushed The Wrong Button’

The message had forced residents of Hawaii islands to flee their homes and take shelter in secure places. Even, people left the cars on the highway and started searching for safe shelters.

Washington, Jan 15: The authorities have shifted the blame for raising a false alarm of an incoming missile in Hawaii on an employee who “pushed the wrong button.”

An emergency alert notification had been sent on Saturday, claiming a “ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii.” It later turned out that it was a false alarm set off by an employee mistakenly.

“BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” the emergency alert read. The emergency management agency quickly clarified on Twitter that there was no missile threat to Hawaii.

Later, Hawaii governor David Ige said that the alarm was set off as a result of a human error. He said that an employee pushed the wrong button. Due to the error, the warning flashed on all the means of mass communication including television and radio.

Ige said he was discussing with top emergency and defense officials the measures needed to prevent such an incident from occurring again.

The message had forced residents of Hawaii islands to flee their homes and take shelter in secure places. Even, people left the cars on the highway and started searching for safe shelters.

Ige also issued a statement via Twitter, saying he wanted to “get to the bottom of this so we can prevent an error of this type in the future”.

“While I am thankful this morning’s alert was a false alarm, the public must have confidence in our emergency alert system”, he wrote.