False Missile against Hawaii warning - sent to Hawaiian, USA cell phones. More information on sensor or alarm chain of command errors will appear as it becomes available.
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From Australia's ABC News January 14, 2018, first details:
[On January 13, 2018 (Hawaii time) a false alarm was sent out to Hawaiian residents and tourists] "Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill."
It might sound like something straight out of a horror movie, but for 38 minutes terrified Hawaiian residents thought the world was going to end.
...Why did it take 38 minutes to correct the error?
Many have been left asking why it took so long for emergency management to reveal it was a false alarm, with some residents only finding out it was sent in error because of a tweet sent in the interim by US Representative Tulsi Gabbard.
A revised alert informing of the "false alarm" did not reach mobile phones until about 40 minutes after the first warning was sent.
Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency administrator Vern Miyagi said "there was no automated way to send a false alarm cancellation".
"We had to initiate a manual process. And that was why it took a while to notify everyone," he told a media conference.
When asked if that was why it took 38 minutes to notify people, he again replied it was due to the "manual process to provide notification on the smartphones and cellphones".
"We did have other notification that occurred much, much sooner than that," he said.
The agency had tweeted there was no threat about 10 minutes after the initial alert, but residents who were not on Twitter did not see the correction.
More information on sensor or alarm chain of command errors will appear as it becomes available.
Pete