The Estonian Defence Forces activated the EE-ALARM emergency alert system on Wednesday. This was necessary due to the Russia-Ukraine war. However, a human error occurred during the process.
On the night of March 25, drones flew over the Gulf of Finland near Estonia's airspace. Since the drones were not dangerous, no emergency alert was activated.
On Wednesday morning at 3:43 AM, a drone hit the chimney of the Auvere power plant near the Narva River. The drone entered Estonian airspace. The emergency alert was activated, even though the drone had already crossed the border.
The Defence Forces stated that detecting drones or missiles outside Estonian airspace does not always require activating an emergency alert. Attacks on Russian infrastructure are frequent, and there is not always a threat.
On Wednesday morning at 8 AM, the Defence Forces detected a possible intrusion of an unknown aircraft in northeastern Estonia. As a result, EE-ALARM was activated via SMS and app channels.
The EE-ALARM system was activated, but errors occurred while adapting the messages. The message "Air threat, take shelter" was not entirely appropriate. The message began to be modified.
Errors occurred in the language and content of app notifications. There were also issues with defining regions. The errors were quickly corrected, and updated information was sent.
The Defence Forces drew the necessary conclusions and is improving procedures. The situation showed that the emergency alert activation worked properly at 8 AM.