[The South Park Republican]

She wasn't behind the controls. She was " upstairs" - belted in, and a "passenger" at the time of the breakup. The pilots were on the level below.

Thank you. Any idea how much control the pilots have at the guesstimated time of the break-up?

[txradioguy]

At that time they are totally on auto-pilot. The shuttle pilot doesn't get manual control until about the 50-60K altitude range. Though JSC does have the option of letting the computers complete the entire landing sequence right through the rollout.