A United States Air Force base in Germany is on high alert after a potential incoming missile scare after loudspeakers in the European theater gave warnings of an “aerial attack” and to “seek cover.” Thankfully, it was a false alarm as officials later realized it was just a training exercise.
Warnings could be heard blasting from the sirens saying, “Aerial attack, aerial attack, seek cover, seek cover.”
It’s unclear exactly what military event triggered the alert to be sent to Ramstein Air Base but Russia’s Defense Ministry did say that four intercontinental ballistic missiles were successfully test-fired from one of its nuclear submarines around the same time as the alarm.
According to a statement from Moscow, the four test warheads were launched from the Pacific and landed on their targets in northwestern Russia.
The base later posted a statement to their Facebook page, “Today, the Ramstein Air Base Command Post was notified via an alert notification system of a real-world missile launch in the European theater. The Command Post followed proper procedure and provided timely and accurate notifications to personnel in the Kaiserslautern Military Community.”
The statement noted that the launch was “then assessed to be part of a training exercise and not a threat to the KMC area” and declared that the “situation is all clear.”
The base thanked their Command Post members for their quick response and for making sure everyone was informed so they could take every proper safety precaution.
In 2018, a similar false alarm made headlines when officials in Hawaii mistakenly issued an alert to the public warning that a missile was heading straight for the islands.
Emergency alerts appeared on people’s cellphones reading, “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
It was chaos and sheer panic for 38 minutes until officials announced it to be a false alarm.
