He had to press the same wrong button…
It was like a scene from a movie about a major disaster or a doomsday event; alerts buzzed on millions of televisions and smart devices Saturday, warning of an imminent, incoming missile:
6 mins into our ride here in Hawaii and this is the text I just received? Not sure what to do. Sirens are going off. pic.twitter.com/D5USDAw3wp
— Emily Batty (@emilybatty) January 13,2018
Within 40 minutes, a follow-up message came:
NO missile threat to Hawaii.
— Hawaii EMA (@Hawaii_EMA) January 13,2018
Later reports suggested that, during a drill, one state official had simply pressed a wrong button — but there were still those who questioned the fact that it then took over half an hour to correct that mistake.
And now, according to CBS’s David Begnaud, we know the fate of that official:
The Hawaii Emergency worker who “pressed the wrong button” warning of an inbound missile to Hawaii, has been reassigned, but NOT fired, and will return to work as the investigation in to his mistake, continues.
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 14,2018
However, as it turns out, his mistake wasn’t quite as simple as just pressing “the wrong button.” No, in order to actually send out that alert, he had to press the same wrong button twice:
The employee who hit the wrong button in Hawaii, triggering a false alarm warning of an inbound missle, had chance to catch his mistake; he had to hit the wrong button TWICE:
Reporter: There was a two-step process and they pressed Yes in both situations?
Official: Right.
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 14,2018
Oops.
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