False alarm

This refers to the article, ‘False alarm’ (Jan 16), by Patrick Martin. Last Saturday (Jan 13), thousands of cell phones across Hawaii started ringing with an erroneous alert about an incoming ballistic missile heading towards Hawaii. The incident happened due to the mistake of an employee of The Hawaii Emergency Management who erroneously set off a state wide panic by picking the wrong option on his computer for a routine drill, and then confirming his choice too. Although the mistake was fairly simple, the administration’s fault was that it was made too easy for a worker to make the mistake that could have unprecedented consequences. It was systemic problem, calling for the system to be more robust. It indicates that the state didn’t have reasonable safeguards in place in its emergency notification process.

It has now been reported that the state has taken immediate measures by making two changes to its threat notification system. Now, a second employee will have to click the confirmation for any alert that is sent out. Templates have been set up in the system which will immediately correct any future mistaken alerts. The false alarm in Hawaii is a stark reminder of the fact that the risk of accidental nuclear war is not hypothetical. The world has come to the nuclear precipice and needs stringent measures for nuclear arms control. Also, it’s worrisome to note that it took more than half an hour to correct the erroneous alert.

Air-Cdre (r) Azfar A Khan

Karachi