WorthyNews: Hawaii says lack of adequate fail-safe measures led to false missile alert

[WorthyNewsBot]

(Worthy News) - Human error and a lack of adequate fail-safe measures during a civil defense warning drill led to the false missile alert that stirred panic across Hawaii over the weekend, a state emergency management agency spokesman acknowledged on Sunday.

Elaborating on the origins of Saturday’s false alarm, which went uncorrected for nearly 40 minutes, spokesman Richard Rapoza said the employee who mistakenly sent the missile alert “has been temporarily reassigned” to other duties.

Rapoza said an internal investigation of the blunder would be completed by week’s end and that the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency welcomed outside review by the Federal Communications Commission, which has jurisdiction over wireless U.S. alert systems. [ Source: Reuters (Read More...) ]

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[missmuffet]

That had to have been very scary for Hawaii.

[other one]

It actually shows how woefully unprepared we are for that kind of attack from any number of countries.

[walla299]

Yeah. Sad thing is I'm old enough that I grew up with that kind of thing during the Cold War. The Civil Defense stuff went along with our usual fire/tornado drills in Texas anyway. Then there was all that training in Strategic Air Command . . .

[Guest shiloh357]

The human who made that "error" needs to be fired.  There is no margin for error in stuff like this.

[angels4u]

5 hours ago, other one said:

It actually shows how woefully unprepared we are for that kind of attack from any number of countries.

Very true , I wonder how many people had heart attacks from fear?

Would there be any country prepared for those situations ?

In Israel, they might be prepared ..but any other countries?

[angels4u]

4 minutes ago, shiloh357 said:

The human who made that "error" needs to be fired.  There is no margin for error in stuff like this.

VERY true!

[Guest shiloh357]

5 minutes ago, angels4u said:

VERY true!

To me this in the same vein as when Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes comes to your home and tells you have won the "$5000 a week for the rest of your life contest,"  and then has to come back 45 minutes later and take back the prize because they got the wrong house. It was a different person with the same last name that actually won the prize.  You just can't monkey around with people's emotions like that.

[angels4u]

Just now, shiloh357 said:

To me this in the same vein as when Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes comes to your home and tells you have won the "$5000 a week for the rest of your life contest,"  and then has to come back 45 minutes later and take back the prize because they got the wrong house. It was a different person with the same last name that actually won the prize.  You just can't monkey around with people's emotions like that.

lol,that I would not believe if that happened ! 

But you're very right ,there should be 0 tolerance for those mistakes,they should not happen in the first place, I wonder how sharp they are with peoples mental health with people working in high positions?

[Guest shiloh357]

Just now, angels4u said:

lol,that I would not believe if that happened ! 

But you're very right ,there should be 0 tolerance for those mistakes,they should not happen in the first place, I wonder how sharp they are with peoples mental health with people working in high positions?

I wonder about that too.   This "error" wasn't like some accidentally  hit the button with their elbow when getting up to get a cup of coffee.  It is a button on a computer screen that you have to move your mouse over and click on it. And most buttons like that would have a pop up message like, "do you really want to perform this action?"  And then you have to answer yes or no before the action is taken.

So I am skeptical that this was just an accident, but I am open to being wrong.