Hawaii officials have concluded their internal investigation into the false alert that told residents that a ballistic missile was speeding toward the state earlier this month, according to the Hawaii Department of Defense.
Hawaii Gov. David Ige along with other officials will release the results from the internal investigation at a Tuesday press conference.
The announcement will also include “some of the personnel actions that will occur within the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency” as a result of the investigation, according to the Hawaii Department of Defense.
On January 13, an emergency missile alert accidentally went out to everyone in Hawaii, causing mass panic. The false alarm was blamed on an emergency worker who had pushed the wrong button during a routine drill.
An officer in the emergency operation center mistakenly selected an incorrect template to send the message to the public instead of the correct template that would’ve been sent internally, according to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
It took the agency 38 minutes to send a second alert confirming the message was a false alarm.
Ige came under criticism over the delay and he later said that he couldn’t hop on Twitter because he forgot his password.
Apart from Hawaii’s investigation, the Federal Communications Commission has also been looking into the incident, as the state came under criticism for lacking “reasonable safeguards.”
Last week, an FCC official told a Senate committee hearing that the employee who sent out the false missile alert was not cooperating with its investigation. The individual responsible for the mistake was disciplined and reassigned, but not fired, Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency said earlier this month.
