happened because a state worker hit the wrong computer button. we get more on it all from malika lincoln in honolulu. >> what happened today was totally unacceptable and many in our community was deeply affected by this and i'm sorry for that pain and confusion that anyone might have experienced. >> reporter: a somber apology from the governor as state officials admitted human error was to blame for the false ballistic missile threat alert and the nearly 40 minutes it took for a correction to be issued. >> there was no automated way to send a false alarm cancellation. we had to initiate a manual process and that was why it took a while to notify everyone. >> reporter: the mistake happened during a routine test during a shift change.