News about Hawaii False Alarm

[DrHenley]

Oh my, the plot thickens!

Now we have a completely different story about the false alarm. The guy who pushed the button actually believed there was an incoming missile because of a spontaneous drill conducted by the night-shift supervisor testing incoming day-shift workers:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-hawaii-false-missile-alert-20180130-story.html

The emergency worker who sent a false public safety alert on Jan. 13 warning of an imminent ballistic missile attack on Hawaii believed that a ballistic missile was truly bound for the state after mishearing a recorded message as part of an unscheduled drill, according to a preliminary investigation by federal officials.

A combination of human error and improper safeguards led the worker to deliberately send the alert message, which sowed widespread confusion and fear for 38 minutes, the Federal Communications Commission said in its report Tuesday.

The mistake began with a night-shift supervisor who decided to test incoming day-shift workers with a spontaneous drill. The supervisor managing the day-shift workers appeared to be aware of the upcoming test but believed it was aimed at the outgoing night-shift workers. Thus the day-shift manager was not prepared to supervise the morning test, the FCC said.

As a result, there was a lack of supervision when the night-shift supervisor called the day-shift workers pretending to be the U.S. military's Pacific Command, which is charged with detecting missile threats.

 

[Kevin L]

Human error.

Look, you all may disagree with me, but I don't think it's reasonable to expect perfection in any human endeavor.

This is an early warning system designed by humans, so there will be screwups.

I think it's better he called the warning and be wrong then to not call the warning and be wrong.

I like a hair-trigger warning system, because the sooner the warning gets out, the more lives are saved.

Is there anyone here who will honestly tell me that they haven't f----ked up at some point in their lives?

 

[DrHenley]

Thing is, the guy who pushed the button is not the one who screwed up. It was the supervisors.