The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau has released a preliminary report on what caused the false missile alert that terrified Hawaii residents on January 13. While the investigation is ongoing, the preliminary report indicates that the day shift warning officer responsible for the false alert believed that it was a real attack when the phone call that launched the drill did not follow the official script.
According to the report, at 8:05 a.m. that day the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) midnight shift supervisor began a no-notice ballistic missile defense drill at shift change. The supervisor placed a call, pretending to be U.S. Pacific Command, to the day shift warning officers. The supervisor played a recording over the phone that included the drill language “EXERCISE, EXERCISE, EXERCISE,” which according to the report is proper. However, the message also erroneously contained the text of a message for a live missile alert, including the language “THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” The recording did not follow the script contained in the standard operating procedure for this type of drill, the report concluded.
The report continues that, while other warning officers understood that they were taking part in a drill, the warning officer at the alert terminal claimed to believe, in a written statement provided to HI-EMA, that it was a real emergency, and not a drill. That officer then responded as though it were a real attack, by transmitting a live incoming ballistic missile alert at 8:07 a.m.
After the false alert was transmitted, HI-EMA began outreach at 8:12 a.m., but by then its phone lines had already become congested. It posted a “NO missile threat to Hawaii” message on its Facebook and Twitter accounts, but a correction was not able to be issued through the emergency alert system until 8:45 a.m. – over a half an hour after the fact.
Travel experts Travel Agent spoke with shortly following the incident agreed that the incident had little to no impact on Hawaii tourism. One travel agent had clients depart the day of the alert, and received multiple Hawaii requests in the days immediately following the incident.
Shortly after the incident George D. Szigeti, president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA), said that the governor of Hawaii and the director of HI-EMA made “strong public assurances that this type of mistake will never happen again.”
“We have been in contact with our tourism stakeholders to inform them of today’s false alert and reassure them that Hawaii’s safety and security is unaffected by today’s unfortunate incident,” Szigeti said at the time. “There is no cause for travelers with trips already booked to Hawaii or considering a vacation in the islands to change their plans. Hawaii continues to be the safest, cleanest and most welcoming travel destination in the world and the alarm created today by the false alert does not change that at all.”
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