Due to the confusion in messaging, the emergency number 112 was inundated, leaving some callers put on hold, including those with real emergencies. The overload lasted about 10 minutes.

Calls to the national information line 1247 went up five times compared with average, staying at that level for several hours.

"A large number of calls were, of course, from people wanting to confirm whether this was a real situation or an exercise. There were also anxious calls from people asking what they should do — for example, whether they should pick children up from school or kindergarten, whether they should take shelter or not. There were also angry callers who felt this was an overreaction or who do not wish to receive emergency alerts," Janek Murakas, crisis manager at the Emergency Response Center (Häirekeskus) told "Aktuaalne kaamera."

The EE-ALARM system was activated by the Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) as planned on Wednesday, but due to uploading errors, app notifications sent via the state app and the "Ole Valmis!" app were partly in the "wrong" language for the recipient; for instance, one message contained a combination of Russian and Estonian language info — or contained content inappropriate to the reality of the situation. There were also errors in defining the regions of Estonia affected.

The EDF General Staff issued a statement saying: "The EE-ALARM system was activated as planned; however, a human error occurred during the activation process. Previously prepared air threat messages 'Air threat, take shelter' were not fully suitable for the current situation, and the message was therefore adjusted to match the present threat picture in order to avoid causing panic," the General Staff stated.

Once the mistake was identified, it was immediately corrected and an updated notification was sent, the EDF said.

While a stray drone intended for the Russian port of Ust-Luga hit the chimney of the Auvere power station, just 3 kilometers from the Russian border, at a little before 3.45 a.m. Wednesday, the first alert notifications came several hours later.

"This so-called alert signal that went out at 8:30 is related to certain criteria being met, and according to orders from the EDF, a threat notification is triggered at that moment. All the earlier developments we had been monitoring for some time were not sufficient grounds to issue a warning — that is, the threat to our civilian population was low up until that point," EDF Commander-in-Chief Lt. Gen. Andrus Merilo said.

While that same message reached people across Estonia, it did not specify which region was actually at risk, giving those far from the affected area – northeast Estonia – the impression that a threat was imminent.

Interior minister: Lessons will be drawn

Interior Minister Igor Taro (Eesti 200) put this down to "simply human error."
"The region selection covered all of Estonia, and only later was it clarified that it concerned northeastern Estonia," Taro said, adding that lessons could be drawn for next time.

"What I saw in Israel is that they can send alerts not just by region but by city district. In other words, they don't keep the entire society on edge all the time. That is the direction we are also moving in," he continued.

Murakas noted that each and every threat notification message must include time frame, responsible institution and concise and clear information on the situation and what recipients must do – e.g. take shelter or some other action.

Prime Minister Kristen Michal said the incident will now be reviewed and lessons drawn.

Between 2.00 a.m. and 3.00 a.m. on March 25, "several" unidentified drones passed through the northeastern corner of Estonia's airspace, mostly over the sea and above the Gulf of Finland. Since these did not pose a threat to the Estonian populace, the decision was made not to activate the alert system.

Early Wednesday morning at 3:43 a.m., a drone that had entered Estonian airspace over the Narva River struck the chimney of the Auvere power plant. As only a few minutes passed between the border crossing and the collision with the chimney, there was not enough time to activate an air threat alert, although readiness to do so was in place, the General Staff noted.

The General Staff added that it is not reasonable to automatically trigger preventive alerts if drones or missiles are detected flying outside Estonian airspace, as attacks on Russian infrastructure are frequent.

Continuously issuing unnecessary alerts in the absence of a confirmed immediate threat could create a risk of the population becoming desensitized to such warnings.

After 8:00 a.m., on Wednesday, the EDF ascertained that an unidentified aircraft might be entering Estonian airspace, in the northeastern region, hence the EE-ALARM notification system being activated via SMS and app channels.

An update specifying that the risk areas were Ida-Viru and Lääne-Viru counties was sent to users nearly an hour later. People in those counties also received SMS messages from the state.

However, other notifications were also sent. Residents of Narva were first notified via the "Ole Valmis!" app, in Russian, that the EDF were issuing the message, with the message then continuing briefly in Estonian: "Air threat! Take cover!"

These apps notified users that the danger had passed at 3.45 p.m. that afternoon, exactly 12 hours after the Auvere incident.

Users of a social media group dedicated to foreign nationals living in Tallinn and in Estonia reported different experiences on the day, with some receiving multiple messages, some receiving notifications in Russian and in Estonian, and others receiving nothing at all.

Information in English about the "Ole Valmis!" ("Be prepared") app is here.

If you observe a drone or find what could potentially be drone fragments of a crashed object you must on no account approach the danger zone, but instead call the emergency line on 112 or the national info hotline on 1247. More information on what to do if you find a military drone is below.

Ukraine's drone wave strikes on Russian Baltic ports

The drone which hit the Auvere power station chimney was known to have entered from Russian airspace, and it was later confirmed that the object was a Ukrainian drone.

Italian air force jets taking part in the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission at Ämari Air Base were reportedly scrambled in response to the incidents, and the northeasternmost portion of Estonia's airspace was closed until the threat level had fallen.

Following mass attacks by Russia on Ukraine, Ukraine has been hitting the Baltic Sea ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga. The latter was hit overnight Tuesday to Wednesday by three waves of Ukrainian attack drones; Russian countermeasures may have been responsible for sending the Ukrainian drones off course and into Estonian airspace. A Ukrainian drone also hit a factory in southeastern Latvia early on Wednesday, while on Monday a drone landed in a sparsely populated region of southeastern Lithuania, close to the Belarusian border. Last August, fragments of a drone later established to be of Ukrainian origin were found in a field near Elva in South Estonia.

Ukraine's strikes on Primorsk, whose oil infrastructure was reportedly ablaze from the weekend, and Ust.-Luga, are aimed at halting the activities of its shadow fleet of oil and LNG tankers. The main reported flight corridor for Ukrainian drones vectored on these targets is over Belarus, which borders both Ukraine and Lithuania and Latvia, northward to the Leningrad oblast. EDF leaders have noted that incidents like Wednesday's overflights are an inevitable side-effect of Russia's invasion of Ukriane.

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