The fact they WERE certain of is that the earlier story was inaccurate...they could and should have said that much..."Folks, we had a garbled and unclear report from the rescue team...we do NOT know at this point how many survivors there are...please bear with us while we try to get clear & complete information."

That would have made the impact a little easier....and about all of the interviews with relatives I have see say the same....they should not have waited so long to at least retract the original story....