Hawaii governor apologizes for false missile alert

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Hawaii Governor David Ige apologizes for the "pain and confusion" caused by pushing a false ballistic missile attack alert.

An emergency alert was sent mistakenly on Saturday to the US state's residents warning of an imminent ballistic missile attack when an employee at the state emergency management agency pushed the "wrong button," Ige said.

A combination photograph shows screenshots from a cell phone displaying an alert for a ballistic missile launch and the subsequent false alarm message in Hawaii January 13, 2018. / Reuters Photo

State officials and the US military's Pacific Command confirmed that there was no actual threat to the state.

The mistaken alert, which triggered panic among many Hawaiians who scrambled to find shelter, stated: "Emergency alert. Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill."

Governor Ige, who apologized for the mistake, said in televised remarks that the alert was sent during an employee shift change at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. Vern Miyagi, the agency's administrator, called it "human error."

"We have different ways of mechanism. We do know that we have to broadcast message across all platforms. There is no way to initiate an auto message; we have to draft it manually," Ige explained in response to the delay in retracting the message and why the team failed to pause the siren.

The alert, sent to mobile phones and aired on television and radio, was issued amid high international tensions over DPRK's development of ballistic nuclear weapons.

According to Ige, the two-way procedures first to send the message and followed by a confirmation were both missed. The individual who was in charge of the siren also failed to make the correct response.

Media reports said it took 38 minutes for the initial alert to be corrected. The Emergency Management Agency eventually said on Twitter: "NO missile threat to Hawaii."

A spokesman for the Pacific Command also said it "detected no ballistic missile threat to Hawaii and that the message warning had been sent in error.

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Source(s): AP ,Reuters