During the first hours of a crisis, a leadership team has to act before it knows everything. The danger is that urgency turns every question into a demand for an immediate answer from the same person.
The leader's first responsibility is to establish a workable decision process.
Separate facts from the current interpretation
Create a brief record of what is known, what is assumed and what is being checked. Assign owners to the missing information. Set a time for the next update so that people do not have to keep interrupting one another to find out whether anything has changed.
Name who can authorize immediate protective action and which commitments need further review. A clear boundary allows more people to act without making every decision irreversible.
Keep a route for unwelcome information
Ask what could make the current explanation wrong. Thank the person who identifies a discrepancy and give someone responsibility for checking it. The team needs to know that a challenge will receive a useful response.
Arrange relief for the people carrying the highest decision load. Food, rest and handovers are operational considerations when a response extends beyond the first shift.
After the immediate situation is contained, preserve the decision record. Review what information was available at each point and which arrangements helped or obstructed the response. That review will be more useful than judging every choice with knowledge acquired afterward.