Twelve Alive
A garbled radio relay turned into a headline announcing a miracle. Three hours later, the miracle had to be taken back, miner by miner.
- First reportAssociated Press, local officials
Explosion traps 13 miners in Sago Mine, West Virginia
A predawn explosion at the Upshur County coal mine trapped 13 men behind rockfall as carbon monoxide filled the sealed area. One miner had already died in the blast; rescue crews began drilling toward the others.
HISTORY, "13 coal miners are trapped in Sago Mine disaster; 12 die" ↗ - UpdateAP, Reuters, cable news
"We Got 12 Alive!"
A message relayed through underground stations garbled on its way to the surface. Family members overheard radio chatter on cell phones and began celebrating before any official statement; the report reached wire services and aired nationally as confirmed fact, with church bells ringing at the mine site.
NPR, "Twelve Men Found Dead in West Virginia Coal Mine" ↗ - CorrectionInternational Coal Group CEO Ben Hatfield
Correction: only one miner survived
About three hours after the celebration began, mine officials confirmed the truth to families: 12 of the 13 miners had died, and only Randal McCloy Jr. survived. Hatfield said the "12 alive" report was "bad information" that "spread like wildfire" and was never an announcement the company had authorized — though officials had known internally within roughly 20 minutes that the number was wrong.
NPR, "Twelve Men Found Dead in West Virginia Coal Mine" ↗
What it teaches
Like the Williams case, no single person lied. Hope traveled down a chain of relayed, overheard, half-caught radio calls and came out the other end as a fact, reported by wire services that had no way to independently confirm it. The truer number was sitting in the command center the whole time the celebration was happening.