The Civil Defense employee who ‘pushed the wrong button’ which set off an alert warning of an incoming missile attack in Hawaii on Saturday has been reassigned, but not fired, according to CBS News.
The person whose error sparked a massive, state-wide panic that lasted for nearly 40 minutes before authorities announced it was a false alarm will return to work while the investigation is ongoing.
The employee works for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
The false alarm was triggered during an internal drill timed to coincide with a shift handover at 8.07am. The all-clear phone alert was not sent until 38 minutes later.
Incredibly, officials said the employee who made the mistake wasn’t aware of it until mobile phones in the command center began displaying the alert.
Hawaii’s governor, David Ige, has pledged that such an incident would not repeat itself in the future, HawaiiNewsNow.com reported.
The Civil Defense employee who ‘pushed the wrong button’ which set off an alert warning of an incoming missile attack in Hawaii on Saturday has been reassigned, but not fired. A woman is seen above taking shelter in a store after the alert went out on Saturday morning

The person whose error sparked a massive, state-wide panic that lasted for nearly 40 minutes before authorities announced it was a false alarm will return to work while the investigation is ongoing

Hawaii’s governor, David Ige, has pledged that such an incident would not repeat itself in the future
‘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 EMA Administrator Vern Miyagi in a press conference Saturday afternoon.
Miyagi, a retired Army major general, said the employee had been with the agency for ‘a while’ and that he would be ‘counseled and drilled so this never happens again’ – but stopped short of saying whether there would be disciplinary measures.
Ige apologized at the press conference: ‘I am sorry for the pain and confusion it caused. I, too, am extremely upset about this and am doing everything I can do to immediately improve our emergency management systems, procedures and staffing.’
Panicked Hawaiians ran for their lives and even lowered loved ones through manhole covers after receiving this alert at 8.07am local time: ‘BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL’.
A similar message flashed up on local television networks and brought live sports games to a halt. Actor Jim Carrey, like many others, said he woke up thinking he had ‘ten minutes to live’.

Residents of Hawaii are furiously asking why it took officials a whole 38 minutes to correct a missile threat warning that was sent out on Saturday morning, sparking panic across the state

EMA Administrator Vern Miyagi (left) and Hawaii Governor David Ige (right) apologized for the error at a press conference Saturday afternoon

Video appears to show a family taking shelter in the sewer through a manhole cover after a false alert of an inbound ballistic missile sparked panic in Hawaii on Saturday morning

Terror: People began to flee for their lives after the warning was sent that a ballistic missile was inbound to Hawaii

Actor Jim Carrey wrote that he woke up thinking that he had ‘ten minutes to live’
Just got this text from a friend re: Hawaii:
“My friends are in a ‘fall out shelter’ in Hawaii due to the missile threat and hanging with Magic Johnson.”
Get a false nuclear holocaust alarm, hang with a legend. Only in 2018… ��♂️ pic.twitter.com/Lg0AwJUy5D
— John Haltiwanger (@jchaltiwanger) January 13, 2018
On the H-3, a major highway north of Honolulu, vehicles sat empty after drivers left them to run to a nearby tunnel after the alert showed up, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
Fearing a nuclear attack, terrified residents and tourists including basketball legend Magic Johnson flocked to shelters and into their garages.
Golfers in Honolulu for the US PGA Tour’s Sony Open were also thrown into panic and confusion by the mistaken alert
‘Under mattresses in the bathtub with my wife, baby and in laws,’ tweeted American golfer John Peterson. ‘Please lord let this bomb threat not be real.’
The mistake was corrected by government agencies on Twitter 12 minutes later but it took 38 minutes for another phone alert to be issued confirming to residents that it was a false alarm. Some say they never received a second phone alert at all.
Miyagi said that there was no template in the system for an alert retraction, and so the all-clear message had to be manually entered and activated, accounting for some of the delay.
The EMA administrator said that cooling tensions between North and South Korea should have been a signal to residents that the alert was mistaken, urging Hawaiians to ‘keep informed on what’s going on on the tension between the two countries and monitor that.’
‘I deeply apologize for the trouble and heartbreak that we caused today,’ said Miyagi. ‘We’ve spent the last few months trying to get ahead of this whole threat, so that we could provide as much notification and preparation to the public. We made a mistake.’
Officials are suspending further drills until the incident is fully investigated.
State emergency managers have also already implemented a two-person verification for alerts and an automated all-clear signal that can be used in the future.
When it became clear on Saturday morning that the ballistic missile alert had been a false alarm, the public’s panic turned to fury.
‘Imagine this for 37 agonizing minutes before it is deemed a false alarm,’ said one person.

Honolulu is seen on Saturday morning, when a false alert of an inbound ballistic missile sent residents running for shelter in terror

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency tweeted this out, 12 minutes after the threat was issued to confirm the error. This post was made at 8.20am local time, 1.20pm EST

Officials scrambled to notify citizens that there was no inbound ballistic missile threat, but it took 38 minutes to issue an all-clear phone alert because it had to be sent manually
Lawmakers slammed the mistake as ‘inexcusable’ and said ‘the whole state was terrified’.
Another critic said the delay in phone alerts meant that only people with access to social media would have known it was a false alarm straight away.
‘It took until 8.45am to state it was a false alarm. 37 minutes where anyone in Hawaii who doesn’t sit on Twitter dot com all day thought their island might be incinerated.’

Governor David Ige apologized for the false alarm of an inbound ballistic missile
‘Fire people. Fix it,’ one outraged commentator said.
At the same time as the phone alert, an emergency alert was broadcast across radio and television networks.
The TV and radio alert told viewers and listeners: ‘If you are outdoors, seek immediate shelter in a building. Remain indoors well away from windows.
‘If you are driving, pull safely to the side of the road and seek shelter.’
The second message, sent at 8.45am, said: ‘There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. Repeat. False Alarm.’
Calls from frightened residents inundated Civil Defense immediately asking for more information or advice after the first alert was issued.
People who say they got through to the office were then told it was a mistake that was caused by an employee who ‘pushed the wrong buttons’ during a drill.
One woman called 911 in panic and said she was told by the operator that staff were performing a drill when ‘someone pushed the wrong buttons’.
‘Called 911…Operator said it’s a drill of Civil Defense Emergency System but someone pushed the wrong buttons..
‘No missile is headed toward the State of Hawaii REPEAT….NO MISSILE IS HEADED TOWARD THE STATE OF HAWAII.’

A Hawaii Civil Defense official is seen above on Saturday writing instructions for dispatchers fielding calls from terrified locals

Hawaii Civil Defense startled Hawaii residents early Saturday, by sending a Civil Defense alert via cellular phones that a nuclear missile was heading towards Hawaii and to take cover