HONOLULU -- The Hawaii state flag at the Capitol building is a prominent symbol, tying the modern state back to its roots as the Hawaiian Kingdom. However, it's been sewn together wrong.

An English tourist KITV 4 News spoke with at the Capitol spotted the error right away.

"Yeah it's the wrong way up. It's upside down," visitor Patrick Keady said. "Because the thicker bar should be on the bottom."

Local attorney Earle Partington said it isn't the first time he's seen errors on the state's state flag.

"Somebody is just not doing their homework in checking these," Partington said.

On the flag flying over the Capitol Tuesday, the diagonal red line on the Union Jack part in the lower right is too high and the one in the upper left is too low.

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"This is a pretty major mistake to sew the Union Jack together incorrectly," Partington said. "This is the fourth time in, I think, 10 years."

The exact placement of the lines on the flag is significant because when Kamehameha the Great designed the flag, he purposely put the British Union Jack together with the stripes similar to the United States to show respect for the two great superpowers of the era.