The FCC says an investigation into the false missile alert that panicked Hawaiian residents earlier this month has revealed the erroneous warning was sent by an employee who believed an attack was imminent.
According to the preliminary findings released today, the mistake that led to 38 minutes of confusion and fear began after a night-shift supervisor decided to run an unplanned drill on the incoming day-shift workers. Investigators say the supervisor in charge of the day-shift was aware of the alert, but believed it was intended for the night-shift workers.
At 8:00 a.m., the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency began its shift change. At 8:05 a.m. the drill was initiated by the midnight shift supervisor by placing a call to the regular officers pretending to be U.S. Pacific Command. Because the day-shift supervisor was unaware of the incoming test, they were unable to supervise the drill the FCC said.
According to the report, the night-shift supervisor posed as U.S. Pacific Command and played a recorded message over the phone, which began with "exercise, exercise, exercise," - a recording that normally accompanies the beginning of every drill. According to James Wiley, an adviser for the FCC, that's when things began to go wrong.
After that, however, the recording did not follow the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency’s standard operating procedures for this drill. Instead, the recording included language scripted for use in an Emergency Alert System message for an actual live ballistic missile alert. It thus included the sentence “this is not a drill.” The recording ended by saying again, “exercise, exercise, exercise.” Three on-duty warning officers in the agency’s watch center received this message, simulating a call from U.S. Pacific Command on speakerphone.
The worker who initiated the alert only heard the part of the message which contained "this is not a drill." According to the report, the day shift officer failed to hear the 'exercise' portion of the message and believed the threat to be real. At 8:08 a.m., the worker used Hawaii's emergency management computer system to transmit the incoming ballistic missile alert to the State of Hawaii.
Agency personnel attempted to stop the alert, but were unable to do so. Immediately after the alert went out, they began reaching out to Hawaii's radio and TV stations to inform them that the alert had been sent in error and there was no ballistic missile threat.
Investigators caution that they have not interviewed the day shift worker who was actually responsible for initiating the alert.
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