FCC To Investigate Hawaii's Terrifying False Ballistic Missile Alert

OPP Sgt Kerry Schmidt

OPP Sgt Kerry Schmidt

According to the Governor of Hawaii, an employee pushed the "wrong button" during shift change.

A false alarm that warned of a ballistic missile headed for Hawaii sent the islands into a panic Saturday, with people abandoning cars in a highway and preparing to flee their homes until officials said the cellphone alert was a mistake.

"I was just putting on my makeup when this popped up and I got the biggest fright of my life", a tourist told Hawaii News Now.

"We were all just relaxing having coffee and phones started going off with loud alarms", Hamilton said.

The alert, sent to mobile phones and aired on television and radio, was issued amid high global tensions over North Korea's development of ballistic nuclear weapons.

The tweet was then deleted and another message was posted reading: "NO missile threat to Hawaii". "This is not ok", Ing wrote on Twitter.

Tulsi Gabbard also confirmed on Twitter that it was a false alarm.

Top golfers at the PGA Tour's Sony Open in Hawaii were among those caught up in the panic Saturday after the mistaken transmission of an alert warning of an incoming ballistic missile.

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Writing on Twitter Hawaiian Senator Brian Schatz said the incident that left islanders terrified was "totally inexcusable,"There is no missile threat". We ran out into the streets trying to find shelter and saw a few people sprinting toward the mall. We don't know if it was a test and someone forgot to put, 'This is a drill'.

There is no missile threat.

The alert was sent by mistake. Mattis requests probe into Texas shooter's records MORE (D) tweeted in the meantime that officials had assured her that the message was a false alarm.

"Everyone was running around like, 'What do we do?'" he said.

"I was happy I watched a YouTube video on how to survive a nuclear attack", SuLun Novikoff said.

"There is NO threat to the State of Hawaii!" the mayor tweeted. "We need to get to the bottom of what happened and make sure it never happens again", Hirono tweeted.

After the all-clear was given, lawmakers began to question how the false alarm occurred, and how it remained uncorrected for so long.

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