Hawaii employee mistook drill for real missile attack

On January 13, 2018, an emergency alert warning of an incoming missile attack was mistakenly broadcast across Hawaii, causing widespread panic. According to reports and internal investigations, the false alarm was triggered during a spontaneous drill initiated by a midnight supervisor during a shift transition at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

The drill began when a manager, pretending to be a Navy fleet officer, played a prerecorded message simulating a call from US Pacific Command to dayside warning officers. Although the recording began and ended with the word “exercise,” it contained the phrase “this is not a drill.” An on-duty warning officer mistook the message for a real attack and sent a live statewide alert at 8:07 a.m. reading, “Seek immediate shelter this is not a drill.” The state’s governor, David Ige, was notified two minutes later that the alarm was false, and officials stopped broadcasting the alert seven minutes after it was sent.

An internal investigation revealed that the employee who sent the alert, who was subsequently fired, had a history of confusing drills with real-life events. Additionally, James Wiley, an attorney adviser at the Federal Communications Commission Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, noted that the agency’s software allowed users to send both live and test alerts using the same interface.

Following the incident, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency leader Vern Miyagi resigned, and another employee was suspended without pay. An FCC report criticized the state’s lack of cancellation procedures for false alerts, and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai called for new safeguards to prevent similar errors. The Hawaii Department of Defense noted that upcoming announcements from Governor Ige would detail further personnel actions and efforts to make alert distribution more accurate.