We were skiing as a family out west. Came down to the lift after a long set of runs from the summit.
Lifts were running but there were no lines.
We asked the kid running the lift where everyone was.
We got the news, and then like everyone else watched the same moments over and over on the TV, praying for at least one to have survived.
It was hard.
As soon as I saw the footage I assumed they were gone. I was suprised some years later when NASA finally admitted that the crew compartment was intact until it hit the ocean. There was some evidence of the crew trying to enact emergency procedures like switching to suit oxygen from the ship supply. But it was really a foregone conclusion. There was no way to survive that.
CC