The man who sent the false ballistic missile alert in Hawaii said he isn't to blame for the mishap, and despite causing mass panic would not have done anything differently.



Speaking to NBC News, the former employee of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) instead blamed a systemic failure for the false alert on Jan. 13 that sent thousands of terrified residents scrambling for cover.

"I'm really not to blame in this," the man, whose identity was masked, said on camera. "It was a system failure. And I did what I was trained to do."

He added that he heard "this is not a drill," but never the word "exercise," which would have indicated that it was, indeed, a practice run.

"I was 100% sure that it was the right decision, that it was real. I was convinced that it was real," he said."

A Federal Communications Commission report found that the emergency worker did in fact actually believe the threat was real. Officials also revealed that the alert sender had twice before confused a drill with real-life events.



Later, when asked what he would have changed about that morning, the man added, "I can't say that I would do anything differently based on what I saw and heard."