Nevertheless, the discovery of the cabin wreckage raised further doubts about the official narrative of the accident. The nature of the debris indicated that it had not been blown apart or even severely damaged in an explosion, but remained almost entirely intact until it had hit the ocean. Now a further possibility emerged, remote but horrifying: if the crew compartment had escaped in one piece, then its occupants might also have survived the violent breakup of Challenger and—had they been equipped with any equipment to do so—could have escaped, alive, before the wreckage struck the ocean.
