FCC To Investigate Hawaii's False Alarm

The Federal Communications Commission chairman said that his agency planned to investigate the false ballistic missile warning that terrified residents of Hawaii on Saturday morning.

According to NBC News, the high-stakes alert error came just days after FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on Tuesday announced an upgrade and expansion of the same wireless emergency alert system that awoke many Hawaiians on Saturday.

The @FCC is launching a full investigation into the false emergency alert that was sent to residents of Hawaii.

— Ajit Pai (@AjitPaiFCC) January 13, 2018

“Wireless emergency alerts (WEA) are one of several key tools to warn the public of imminent danger when disaster strikes,” Pai said in a statement on Tuesday. “That’s why the Commission has been working hard to make them more effective.”

But that system went awry when a frightening all-caps alert appeared on residents’ phones early Saturday warning them:

Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency sent out a new alert 38 minutes later that said the warning had been sent in error. Hawaii Gov. David Ige later clarified in a press conference that an individual had accidentally sent out the alert.

There is NO missile threat. https://t.co/qR2MlYAYxL

— Governor David Ige (@GovHawaii) January 13, 2018

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, commended Pai for opening an investigation. "This system failed miserably and we need to start over," Schatz said in a tweet.

Since 2012, the Wireless Emergency Alerts system has been used more than 33,000 times to warn people across the country of severe weather, evacuation orders, shelter-in place alerts and Amber Alerts, the FCC said in Tuesday's report.

But in Hawaii that is only one part of the alert system that residents rely on to learn about potential imminent dangers.

According to a November Hawaii Emergency Management Agency public service announcement, the state normally conducts a test of the Attention Alert Signal on the first business day of each month. Typically that test includes the use of two warning sirens that last one-minute each.

As of Dec. 1, 2017, the government reinstated a separate Attack Warning Signal — a one-minute wailing tone to warn of a potential missile strike that was first installed after Pearl Harbor. Across the state, a few, but not all, of those signals rang on Saturday when the errant alert was sent to Hawaiians.

None of them should have sounded, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator Vern Miyagi explained to reporters on Saturday. Those alerts run on an entirely different system and would be initiated by a separate individual.

Gov. Ige also added that the state would be looking into why some people did not receive an alert on their phones via the Wireless Emergency Alert system.

“Emergency alerts are meant to keep us and our families safe, not to create false panic. We must investigate and we must do better,” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted on Saturday.