One of the earliest indicators of a problem with this shuttle was a live thread on FR.
A poster in the western US posted a thread querying/indicating visible problems with the shuttle re-entry.
Sadly, the poster was correct that there were problems.
We followed the incident to its conclusion.
IIRC, he didn’t report what he saw as a problem, he reported that he saw the shuttle and that there was more than one object he was tracking, like he saw some white trails alongside and he wondered what he saw, thinking it was a little odd but not a problem when he saw it
later, the media had to acknowlege that FR and that post itself was the very first visual indication of any problem
It was, in fact, THE earliest report of a problem. A FReeper from the Las Vegas area, as I recall, posted that they had seen the re-entering shuttle shed a large glowing object.
Subsequent research of time stamps by news organizations revealed that this was the very first report of a possible problem.
Shortly thereafter came the report from North Central Texas that there were multiple vapor trails on the expected track, suggesting a break-up.
When Columbia failed to show up on time at KSC, most FReepers already grasped the truth of what had happened.
I remembered that thread. I was just waking up in California, I’d just made a mug of coffee, walked into the computer room and turned on FR and it had just passed over my location. I was disappointed, because I had meant to go outside and watch it go over.