SFO first airport OK’d to send emergency alerts to any cellphone on site

San Francisco International has become the first to receive permission from the Federal Emergency Management System (FEMA) to issue Wireless Emergency Alerts not just to first responders and airport staff, but to any cellphone on airport grounds. That comes one year after a gunman left five dead at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL). 

“This augments other methods of public notification at the airport, including public address system announcements, visual paging systems, social media posts and Web alerts,” SFO spokesman Doug Yakel said. “Having the capability to get information directly to personal cellphones truly takes our emergency communication capability to the next level.”

Yakel said the timing of the announcement with the January anniversary of the the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting was a coincidence but added it was FLL’s active-shooter incident that gave SFO the impetus to ask FEMA for permission to send emergency information to private cellphones at the airport.

“Once we received FEMA approval, there was some back-end technical work required to connect our system with FEMA, including geo-fencing the airport radius for the wireless emergency alerts,” Yakel told USA TODAY's Today in the Sky blog. “All technical and staff training elements have been completed, and as of this month, we’re operational.”

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SFO was not the first airport to seek FEMA’s approval to use the Wireless Alert System to send emergency information to private cellphones on site, but it was the first to receive approval and get the program up and running. 

FEMA reports that at least a half-dozen other airport administrations, including the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and Dallas/Fort Worth International, now also have permission to put the wireless alert system online and another half dozen are about to. (See the full list) 

At SFO, the airport says that if there’s an incident that merits an emergency alert, only designated and specially-trained staff will use the system to send a text message. The messages would be accompanied by an audible alert to mobile phones on site. The alerts would be used if there was an incident, emergency or other situation that required critical and potentially life-saving information to be shared immediately with airport employees, passengers and members of the public who might be at the airport.

“Safety and security are our highest priorities, and we continue to enhance our emergency response capabilities,” SFO Airport Director Ivar C. Satero said in a statement announcing the service. “Being the first airport in the U.S. approved to issue Wireless Emergency Alerts gives us an important tool to help keep people safe during an emergency.”

No special app or subscription service is needed in order for a mobile phone on airport grounds to receive a Wireless Emergency Alert Message, but the “Emergency Alerts” tab under the “Government Alerts” section of a phone setting has to be turned on. (Look for this under “Notifications,” in the same area where you find the Amber Alert tab).

Harriet Baskas is a Seattle-based airports and aviation writer and USA TODAY Travel's "At the Airport" columnist. She frequently contributes to Ben Mutzabaugh's Today in the Sky blog. Follow her at twitter.com/hbaskas.

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