A cellphone alert told me that I had 15-20 minutes to live...

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by 1neeto

Not sure if you’re all up to date, but this morning at 8:00am HST an alert was sent to most cellphones advising everyone to immediately seek shelter because there was an incoming missile headed to Hawaii. I was at a place that had no concrete shelter, and it would make no sense to try and hit the road and seek for one. I was with my wife and at a beautiful place, and I did not panic, I kept collected and started to see if the threat was real or a mistake.

And just when I was going to accept that maybe this is it, and was about to make some important phone calls, a statement was released that it was a mistake, that someone “pressed the wrong button”.

What I learned from this is that the threat of imminent death is not as scary as I thought. And that the local government is nowhere near prepared for something like this. It took nearly 40 minutes for the official all-clear. That’s just absolutely unacceptable.

It could have been worse.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by FOG01

I'm wondering why a button of that magnitude would be placed such that it could be pressed by "mistake."

I doubt it's literally a button, it's almost surely a web app. Knowing some of what passes for software design in government web apps, it's hardly out of the realm of possibility that this was a user error caused by some horrific design.

Also not hard to imagine this wasn't a mistake and was done to drum up fear.

[Tico]

I feel so angry about this and so bad for everyone in the Hawaiian islands.

What a terrifying experience!

[Mandobart]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

Here we go. Maybe it was actually done on purpose to monitor how people react. It doing this they now know how the population will respond and how to deal with it. Along with the deadening affect it now has caused by making people think that it is probably a mistake the next time they get an alarm. It can't happen here is what most think or at least feel. If they did believe that it is something that is going to occur I would guess they would be a little more active with their interactions with their government.

I doubt this was on purpose. I'm a Shift Manager at a nuclear power plant. Our reason for existence is safe, reliable power production. In the event of any natural, man-made, hostile or accidental accident I become the Emergency Director. I work with local city, county and state agencies if something happens. There are years of training, practice and drills required. One we learn right off the bat - when you send out an evacuation recommendation people WILL DIE. The stress, adrenaline, panic etc. WILL KILL. We NEVER make that call lightly. I CANNOT "accidentally" send out an evacuation PAR. That said, I have no knowledge of the actual software, hardware, procedures or protocol used in Hawai'i.

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by Dirk Hofman

...Also not hard to imagine this wasn't a mistake and was done to drum up fear.

This may be the most likely explanation.

[FOG01]

I get what you are saying. My suspicion was that someone did it simply out of run of the mill stupidity as opposed to a high level experiment on the amount of panic it would generate. Someone mentioned it's likely a web app as opposed to a dedicated button. Either way, I can't imagine it's not designed where setting it off is not a conspicuously deliberate act.

[Song Writer]

For 40 minutes people in Hawaii felt like I did for most of October 16 - 28, 1962.

[jwayne]

Blame Frank.

[Bob Womack]

No, it was Raymond.



Bob

[jpd]

Orson Wells sent it..........

[ThermiteTermite]

Originally Posted by 1neeto

What I learned from this is that the threat of imminent death is not as scary as I thought. And that the local government is nowhere near prepared for something like this. It took nearly 40 minutes for the official all-clear. That’s just absolutely unacceptable.

...'It is not frightening to die when we all die together..' -Nikolai Gritsenko-



https://youtu.be/YsXhgzX56cA?t=2066

[1neeto]

There’s a whole lot of conspiracy theories. One claims that a missile was launched and intercepted. There’s reports of ships leaving Pearl Harbor and F22’s scrambling out of Hickam by around that time. I was quite far from there, but I was very close to a marine corps base and it was very quiet.

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by 1neeto

There’s a whole lot of conspiracy theories. One claims that a missile was launched and intercepted. There’s reports of ships leaving Pearl Harbor and F22’s scrambling out of Hickam by around that time. I was quite far from there, but I was very close to a marine corps base and it was very quiet.

They hadn't checked their cellphones.

[Scootch]

Originally Posted by 1neeto

There’s a whole lot of conspiracy theories. One claims that a missile was launched and intercepted. There’s reports of ships leaving Pearl Harbor and F22’s scrambling out of Hickam by around that time. I was quite far from there, but I was very close to a marine corps base and it was very quiet.

I wonder how hackable those systems might be?

[Dirk Hofman]

The design fail argument gains significant steam...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.b0bf4544d94e

Around 8:05 a.m., the Hawaii emergency employee initiated the internal test, according to a timeline released by the state. From a drop-down menu on a computer program, he saw two options: “Test missile alert” and “Missile alert.” He was supposed to choose the former; as much of the world now knows, he chose the latter, an initiation of a real-life missile alert.

No confirmation dialog to make sure this was the intended action? Both on the same drop-down?

Not how one would ideally design a critical interaction like this.