False Alarm: Hawaii Wrongly Alerts 'Incoming Ballistic Missile' Threat

The timing couldn't have been worse: An emergency alert warning of an "incoming ballistic missile" was mistakenly sent out by Hawaiian officials on Saturday.

Major blunder.
Photo Credit: *Hawaii EMA*

Jerry DeMarco

01/13/2018 1:50 p.m.

It actually was part of a drill and wasn't supposed to be sent to cellphones, authorities said.

"NO missile threat to Hawaii," the state's Emergency Management Agency (EMA) tweeted at 1:20 p.m. EDT (8:20 a.m. Hawaii time).

It took 38 minutes to correct the error, which occurred when an employee selected the wrong item from a drop-down menu during what was supposed to be an internal test of Hawaii's emergency alert system.

The bogus alert, telling residents to seek cover from an incoming missile, comes amid increased tension between the United States and North Korea over that country's continued testing of ballistic missiles.

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