Because they wanted to at least give a few days to find conclusive proof (wreckage) so they could inform the family's before all of us?
This is just reasoning after the fact. It doesn't make sense to conceal evidence. If this used some secret technology, okay, why say it publicly now? If it's okay to be public, why not a few days ago?
I think they were just holding out hope that it wasn’t an implosion noise.
Agreed.
We seem, as a culture, to feel we're owed, or entitled, to everything nowaways.
By releasing this information, there would have possible been a massive outcry by the (unconcerned) public and the families involved that the parties involved weren't doing enough. Everyone would have hopped on the "you're too slow to act" bandwagon. This despite not having any knowledge or expertise in the area.
They may have created some headaches at this point, but saved themselves a lot of undeserved headaches and media criticism by not releasing info earlier.
Are you referring to the actual "government" ? because in that case, it definitely seems like they owe their own citizens something?
That is not true. The federal government does not charge for search and rescue.
Why do you believe otherwise?
Do you have NO empathy? Why would they tell the family they think everyone is dead without verifiable proof and within the window in which they could still be alive? (4 days of oxygen). What is the benefit beyond a bunch of virtual gawkers getting slightly more information slightly quicker?
You don't have to tell the family you're certain they are dead, if you aren't, but you should tell the family "We heard a sound consistent with implosion at the same time we simultaneously lost communications and telemetry from the sub. The most rational explanation is that they are all dead." Once you've told the family, you should tell the public.
What people are engaging in here, you included, is some kind of baffling Just World bias. That is, this unusual circumstance has happened - the sub imploded, the government knew, the government waited days to tell the public, and now you and others are defending the government's actions - as if, because it happened this way it must be justified in happening this way. In reality, of course, it's completely irrational - that's why you don't even bother to defend the course of events rather than imply I lack empathy (which, again, backwards because you are defending lying to the bereaved for no gain, in order to deceive them into believing their loved ones are huddled in the cold and dark and slowly suffocating when you know they are not).
There is absolutely no reason to temporarily conceal the deaths. The government should have notified the families with their information, and then the public.