What I'm about to suggest is science fiction. For it's first few missions, Columbia (OV-102) was loaded with engineering sensors, e.g. calorimeters behind the leading edge RCC tiles, etc. Most of the engineering data stuff was later removed to save weight, etc. If those senors had remained, it is possible the fault in the thermal protection system might have been immediately detected upon entry into the atmosphere. Normally a Shuttle enters the atmosphere at a very high angle-of-attack to reduce most of its lift (the hypersonic equivalent of being in a stall). If the auto pilot had access to a comprehensive set of sensors, saw that the vehicle was about to fail then it could lower the vehicle's angle-of-attack and initiate an atmospheric skip-out. If the vehicle held together after the skip-out, then the astronauts might have a few minutes to bail out of the shuttle with a MOOSE escape system. See the following if you don't know about MOOSE:
http://www.astronautix.com/craftfam/rescue.htm

It would take balls of brass to leave an intact orbit vehicle and stake one's life on a MOOSE. The auto pilot would have to be very insistent that the astronauts had to leave immediately, e.g. flashing lights, with an artificial voice shouting "bail out!", "bail out!" .

Gary