Remember when an alert was sent out to residents of Hawaii saying they were about to be hit by an incoming missile that sent the state into a panic (and onto Pornhub) and it ended up being a false alarm? Well, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency employee who's was responsible for sending the alert will not cooperate with the FCC's investigation into the incident, according to Time.
"We are quite pleased with the level of cooperation we have received from the leadership of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency thus far. We are disappointed, however, that one key employee, the person who transmitted the false alert, is refusing to cooperate with our investigation,” chief of the FCC’s public safety and homeland security bureau Lisa Fowlkes said during a meeting with the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Thursday. “We hope that person will reconsider."
The incredible blunder made by the employee sent out a terrifying alert to millions of cell phones on Jan. 13. The message read, "BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL." As it turns out, it was a drill and this guy clearly pressed the absolute wrong button to transmit this message to the masses. Thankfully, the employee responsible for sending an entire state into a panic has already been reassigned to a new position.
As serious as this situation could have been, the hilarity to come out of its aftermath is kind of impressive. Aside from the discovery that a ton of people decided their best option during an incoming ballistic missile was to watch one last porn video, it was also discovered that Hawaii's governor David Ige was unable to immediately announce it was a false alarm because he forgot his Twitter password. You can't make this stuff up. This sounds like the plot of a terrible straight-to-TV movie.
Aside from the lack of cooperation from the employee responsible for the whole thing, the FCC said its investigation is still making progress. Fowlkes said, "The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency tells us that is working with its vendor to integrate additional technical safeguards into its alert origination software, and has changed its protocols to require two individuals to sign off on the transmission of tests and live alerts."
Hopefully, that means there is no shot of this happening again on the beautiful islands of Hawaii.
