Story highlights FCC official expresses disappointment that worker isn't cooperating

Hawaii Emergency Management Agency has been cooperative in investigation, official said

(CNN) The employee who sent out the false missile alert that caused mass panic in Hawaii earlier this month, refuses to cooperate with a Federal Communications Commission investigation, an official said in a Senate committee hearing Thursday.

"We are disappointed however that one key employee, the person who transmitted the false alert is refusing to cooperate with our investigation," said Lisa Fowlkes, bureau chief of the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. "We hope that person will reconsider."

On January 13, an emergency missile alert accidentally went out to everyone in the state. The false alarm was blamed on an emergency worker who "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.

Fowlkes called the incident "absolutely unacceptable."

"This cry of wolf damaged the credibility of emergency alert messaging, which can be dangerous when a real emergency occurs," she said.