Man behind missile alarm feared attack
Officials say fired Hawaii employee had history of confusing ‘real life ... and drills’
WASHINGTON — The Hawaii employee who sent out a false alarm earlier this month warning of an incoming missile attack said he misunderstood a drill and believed that a ballistic missile had actually been fired, authorities said Tuesday.
Even more alarming, officials said this was not the first such mix-up for the employee. At least twice before the false alarm, he “has confused real life events and drills,” a state investigation concluded, part of a troubled work history that had “been a source of concern ... for over 10 years” to his co-workers.
The false warning that was blasted out to cellphones across Hawaii on Jan. 13 had somber consequences, sending waves of panic across the state at a time of heightened tensions with North Korea and renewed fears of nuclear attacks. Exacerbating the terror, the message blaring “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” went uncorrected for 38 minutes.
A federal investigation said the employee believed there “was a real emergency, not a drill,” which contradicted explanations previously offered by Hawaii officials, who have said the alert was sent when an employee hit the wrong button on a drop-down menu.
Authorities were apologetic after what Democratic Gov. David Ige had previously called “a terrifying day when our worst nightmares appeared to become a reality.” Ige and other officials on Tuesday defended their public response to the false alarm, and they pledged to continue improving the state’s Emergency Management Agency.
The employee who sent out the alert was fired last week and has not been publicly identified.
It was not clear if the employee contested his firing or disputed the public account of what happened and his history. A spokesman for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The agency’s top official — Vern Miyagi, administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency — “has taken full responsibility” for the incident and resigned Tuesday, said Maj. Gen. Joe Logan, the state adjutant general, who oversees the department.
The state investigation released Tuesday described the employee who sent out the alert as having a poor history dating back for years, with other members of staff saying they did not feel comfortable with his work.
The state report describes a frenzy of activity after the false alarm was issued, but even as some employees began notifying others, the employee who sent the alert was “sitting and seemed confused.”
Hours before Hawaii officials released their findings, the Federal Communications Commission published its own preliminary report saying that the state employee claimed to have sent out the alert because he did not realize a drill was underway.
The incident began when a night-shift supervisor decided to test incoming dayshift workers with a spontaneous drill, the FCC report stated.
The supervisor managing the day-shift workers appeared to be aware of the upcoming test but believed it was aimed at the outgoing night-shift workers. As a result, the day-shift manager was not prepared to supervise the morning test, the FCC said.
Following standard procedures, the night-shift supervisor posing as U.S. Pacific Command played a recorded message to the emergency workers warning them of the fake threat.
The message included the phrase “Exercise, exercise, exercise,” the FCC report said, but it also included the “This is not a drill” language used for real missile alerts.
The worker who then sent the emergency alert said they did not hear the “exercise” part of the message.