i saw the challenger explode live on TV too, and i saw NO PARACHUTES. nobody i know who also saw it saw parachutes.
some people hope so hard that they see what they wish, thus the assertions of one "eyewitness" is as reliable as the observations of a two year old child.
the challenger went from situation normal to freefall so fast nobody could do anything to escape. they were still inder the multi-G force of takeoff acceleration, trapped in their seats untill they dump their solid rocket boosters.
they were fucked from the moment their match was lit, they just didnt know it.
the media lies to us regularly, and those lies are often the result of bad info, wishful thinking, and ignorance. the nefarious deliberate plans to create deliberate falsehoods are far less common. but thats mainly due to incompetence. they have been caught lying so often, the charges of being "a fringey nutcase" are starting to wear thin.