State officials have released a timeline of events leading up to and following a false emergency alert sent on Saturday that warned people across Hawaii of an incoming ballistic missile.
The alert, delivered to mobile phones of people on the Hawaiian islands, urged people to take immediate shelter warning that the notice was "not a drill."
Shortly after, Hawaii officials declared no missile had been fired and the emergency alert was made in error. However, it wasn't until nearly 40 minutes later that a second alert correcting the first notification was sent out to mobile devices.
Emotions surrounding the event turned from panic to frustration as people in Hawaii, lawmakers, state officials and others questioned how such an error occurred.
The Federal Communications Commission has launched an investigation into the event, and Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency administrator took the blame for the mistake.
Government officials say a preliminary report on the findings and corrective actions surrounding the false emergency alert will be issued next week.
Read below the timeline released by state officials surrounding the false emergency alert:
Approx. 8.05 a.m.: A routine internal test during a shift change was initiated. This was a test that involved the Emergency Alert System, the Wireless Emergency Alert, but no warning sirens.
8.07 a.m.: A warning was erroneously triggered statewide by an employee at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA).
8.10 a.m.: State Adjutant Maj. Gen. Joe Logan validated with the US Pacific Command that there was no missile launch.
Honolulu Police Department notified of the false alarm by HI-EMA.
8.13 a.m.: State Warning Point issues a cancellation of the Civil Danger Warning Message. This would have prevented the initial alert from being rebroadcast to phones that may not have received it yet. For instance, if a phone was not on at 8.07am, it would not receive the alert later on.
8.20 a.m.: HI-EMA issues public notification of cancellation via their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
8.24 a.m.: Governor Ige retweets HI-EMA’s cancellation notice.
8.30 a.m.: Governor posts cancellation notification to his Facebook page.
8.45 a.m.: After getting authorization from FEMA Integral Public Alert and Warning System, HI-EMA issued a 'Civil Emergency Message' remotely, canceling the false alert.
The following action was executed by the Emergency Alert System (EAS):
1. EAS message over Local TV/Radio Audio Broadcast & Television Crawler Banner.
“False Alarm. There is no missile threat to Hawaii.”
“False Alarm. There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. Repeat. There is no
missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. False Alarm.”
2. Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA)
“False Alarm. There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii.”
9:30 a.m.: Governor makes initial media notification.
9:34 a.m.: Governor’s message posted to his Facebook and Twitter accounts.