This came in from my son who is a pilot based out of Atlanta. He was responding to my e-mail to him. ----- Original Message ----- I know how you feel! I was at 37,000 feet exactly 30 miles north of the Kennedy Space Center this morning when the news came across the Jacksonville and Miami Center frequency. "Shuttle Columbia has broken up on re-entry over east Texas at approximately 200,000 feet,....the plasma trail is still being tracked,....will advise as we receive more information", I kid you not, I was looking at the landing strip 30 miles away when those words came across; they then gave us a re-route slightly west of the Cape (normally we would go right over the top, since the Shuttle comes in at 65,000 feet and makes a 180 degree turn over the Atlantic before crossing the shoreline at 10,000 feet) and we continued on to the Miami area. On the way back up to Atlanta 1 hour later an American Airlines guy was describing and recounting the first hand observations from their cockpit as they were approaching the east Texas border with Arkansas enroute to Florida. One of the 'gov't experts' we fly seems to think that the preliminary indications are heat tile damage to the bottom of the shuttle wing/fuselage area, causing a blow-torch effect in the aft cargo bay and ensuing failure of a cargo bay door which led to dynamic load failure of the tail structure, etc., etc., etc., sounded like he had just got off the phone with somebody in the loop, but who knows. Probably a million theories before this time tommorrow. I doubt we'll know anything for some time to come. All we can do today is pray for the souls lost and the souls tormented that they may all find some peace. Stay in touch! Love ya, Sandy B. -----Original Message----- The shuttle came directly over St. George, this morning. I went out side and watched it. It was about 4 minutes before 7:00 A.M.MST It was so fantastic to see. A bright white light leaving a long long white contrail against a still semi dark sky. As it passed overhead, I could see a faint red glow coming off of what I suppose was the bottom of the ship. Having never seen a reentry or even seen photos of a reentry, I guessed everything was going according to plan. I did, however, see a couple of "puffs" of smoke (contrail) as it flew toward me. I just assumed that it was hitting some uneven air pockets as it reentered the atmosphere at 15000 MPH. I am just sick about this, but thought you would like a firsthand discription. BB