HONOLULU (AP) - The Latest on a hearing held about Hawaii’s mistaken missile alert (all times local):
1 p.m.
The head of the Hawaii state Department of Defense says the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency began implementing its plan to issue warnings about ballistic missile attacks before the entire plan was drafted.
Maj. Gen. Arthur “Joe” Logan told a U.S. Senate committee hearing in Honolulu on Thursday that “’We started flying the plane before we built the whole plan.”
Logan told lawmakers he felt it was imperative that he do so given North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile and nuclear tests and its threats toward Hawaii.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii held the hearing to understand how and why Hawaii mistakenly sent cellphone and broadcast alerts in January warning of an imminent ballistic missile attack.
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A Federal Communications Commission official says Hawaii’s emergency alert system plan is more than 10 years old.
Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel told a U.S. Senate committee hearing in Honolulu on Thursday that states file their plans with the FCC and these plans are confirmed annually.
She says the FCC should make sure these plans for alerts to broadcasters are up to date. She says the commission can do this by making sure the plans include best practices. Rosenworcel says the commission should be making the process meaningful.
She says plans should include how false alerts would be corrected.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii held the hearing to understand how and why Hawaii in January mistakenly sent cellphone and broadcast alerts warning of an imminent ballistic missile attack.
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9 a.m.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii is holding a hearing on how and why the state of Hawaii in January mistakenly sent alerts warning that a ballistic missile was about to hit the islands.
The hearing Thursday in Honolulu is also expected to address options for improving emergency alerts.
Schatz, a Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet, has introduced legislation to give the federal government sole responsibility for handling missile alerts.
A Hawaii Emergency Management Agency employee sent the alert to cellphones and broadcast stations across the state on Jan. 13 during an exercise.
Officials later disclosed the employee didn’t think he and his colleagues were participating in a drill and instead believed a real attack was imminent. The state has since fired him.
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