The false emergency message that people in Hawaii received about a rocket attack was the result of a human error. “During the work transfer, the wrong button was pressed”, says the governor of Hawaii against CNN.
After the false alarm, the EMA Hawaii disaster response reported on Twitter that the alert was not correct and that there was no rocket on its way to the island. But it took 38 minutes before a correction was sent to the first alert.
EMA is now looking at the bottom how can such a disturbing alarm be sent to the world with one wrong act. Not only did people get the message on their phone, but there was also a red bar on the TV saying that a rocket had been fired in Hawaii and that people had to find a hiding place as soon as possible.
The governor also wants to know exactly what happened, so that it does not go wrong again. “I am relieved that it was a false alarm, but citizens must be able to rely on our alarms,” he writes on his website.
“In an era of insults back and forth between Trump and the North Korean leader, this hit hard,” tweeted correspondent Erik Mouthaan. North Korea says it has a nuclear weapon and a missile that the US could reach. Since that message, Hawaii has started again with monthly testing of the air alarm.