Ajit Pai, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, announced that his agency is conducting a "full investigation" into the false ballistic missile alert that sent across Hawaii in the early morning there on Saturday.

"The @FCC is launching a full investigation into the false emergency alert that was sent to residents of Hawaii," Pai said in a brief tweet.

The @FCC is launching a full investigation into the false emergency alert that was sent to residents of Hawaii. — Ajit Pai (@AjitPaiFCC) January 13, 2018



Cellphones, televisions, and radio stations received the morning emergency alert about an inbound ballistic missile, claiming it was not a drill.

Hawaii Gov. David Ige told CNN that he was informed that someone "pushed the wrong button" to send out the false alert and occurred during an employee shift change.

Local officials and the U.S. Pacific Command quickly confirmed that the emergency alert was sent out in error to residents of the island chain, but it took nearly 40 minutes for the state of Hawaii to send out a corrective message.

There were reports of widespread fear as residents ran for shelter.

Ige tweeted that he is meeting with "top officials of the State Department of Defense and the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency to determine what caused this morning’s false alarm and to prevent it from happening again."

The White House put out a statement to say President Trump has been briefed on the situation.

"The President has been briefed on the state of Hawaii's emergency management exercise. This was purely a state exercise," said White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters.