An employee with the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency truly thought a ballistic missile was headed to the state when he sent what turned out to be a false alarm warning Hawaiians to seek immediate shelter, according to an FCC investigation.
According to the Washington Post, the night-shift manager at the agency decided to test the incoming day-shift employees with a spontaneous drill. The day-shift manager reportedly knew about the drill, but thought it was being conducted with the night-shift staff.
Read the FCC's entire report below.
When the night-shift manager called the day-shift staff pretending to be the military's Pacific Command, there was a lack of supervision, causing an employee to send the alert in error.
The agency did not issue a an official correction for more than 40 minutes, though lawmakers tweeted that the message had been sent in error within minutes of the alert being sent.