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Hawaii emergency agency staff seen watching movies, asleep

This Jan. 13, 2018 file smartphone screen capture shows a false incoming ballistic missile emergency alert sent from the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency system. The Federal Communications Commission says human error and inadequate safeguards are to blame for a missile alert that was sent mistakenly in Hawaii. The FCC said Tuesday, Jan. 30, that the individual who sent the false alert refused to talk to the agency, but provided a written statement. (Caleb Jones / AP)
By Audrey Mcavoy Associated Press

HONOLULU – An employee of the Hawaii agency that mistakenly sent cellphone and broadcast alerts warning of a missile attack in January says he saw staff members watching movies or TV on the job.

The employee wrote an email to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency’s administrator saying another staffer witnessed all three people on duty asleep.

The email was dated Jan. 14, the day after the alert went out. The employee’s name wasn’t released.

The email was included in hundreds of pages released to the media under open-records requests.

The same employee complained that his calls for a way to cancel missile alerts were not heeded.

The email was written a day after a different agency employee mistakenly sent an alert warning residents a ballistic missile was inbound to the islands.