New York ? The arresting image of a white streak flashing across the sky then breaking into several pieces — repeated over and over — told television viewers what happened to the space shuttle Columbia before any official government word.

Broadcast and cable news networks covered the story full time on Saturday. The video wasn’t as spectacular, but it immediately evoked memory of the space shuttle Challenger’s explosion in 1986.

“It is a very eerie case of deja vu for all of us,” said Gary Tuchman, CNN correspondent.

That there were pictures at all this time was a combination of luck and routine journalistic preparedness.

James Lenamon, a cameraman for KXAS-TV in Dallas, was assigned to look for the shuttle in between other assignments. It appeared in the sky about three minutes before he was expecting it.

He noticed the flashes and contrails that appeared to indicate something flying away from the shuttle, but he had no idea this was out of the ordinary. He filed his videotape with the station and moved on to his next assignment — videotaping parents waiting in line at a private school.

It was only when he saw his pictures on NBC’s special report that he realized what he had shot. “I was very emotional,” he said.