Hawaii's false missile threat: Worker 'feels terrible' after pushing the wrong button

By Nicole Darrah, Kathleen Joyce

Published January 14, 2018

FoxNews.com

After Hawaii emergency officials confirmed that an alert about an inbound ballistic missile was a mistake, they said the employee who pushed the wrong button feels awful about the panic-inducing incident.

Vern Miyagi, who oversees the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (EMA), said at a news conference late Saturday that the civil defense employee who pushed the wrong button regrets what took place.

An emergency alert of Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency, which was sent to the islands early Saturday morning, read: "BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL."

"This guy feels bad, right. He's not doing this on purpose - it was a mistake on his part and he feels terrible about it," said Miyagi in a press conference Saturday afternoon.

Miyagi, a retired Army major general, said the employee would be "counseled and drilled so this never happens again," but he did not say whether there would be disciplinary measures.

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Rather than triggering a test of the system, it went into actual event mode. He confirmed that to trigger the alert, there is a two-step process involving only one employee — who both triggers the alarm, then also confirms it.

"There is a screen that says, 'Are you sure you want to do this?'" Miyagi said. The employee confirmed the alert, inadvertently causing a panic in a state already on edge over saber-rattling missile threats from North Korea. 

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Hawaii Gov. David Ige said in a statement Sunday that the false alert was "an unfortunate situation that has never happened before and will never happen again."

"On behalf of the State of Hawai'i, I deeply apologize for this false alert that created stress, anxiety and fear of a crisis in our residents and guests," Ige said.

At about 8:07 a.m. local time, Hawaii citizens received an emergency alert on their phone that read: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

At 8:20 a.m. local time, Hawaii EMA tweeted that there was “NO missile threat” to the state. However, the tweet didn't reach people who aren't on the social media platform.

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