There was a possibility to rescue Columbia, but it would have been very difficult: https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/the-audacious-rescue-plan-that-might

There was a possibility to rescue Columbia, but it would have been very difficult: https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/the-audacious-rescue-plan-that-might-have-saved-space-shuttle-columbia/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/the-audacious-rescue... That there was "no other feasible plan" than re-entry was presumably because the risk of re-entry was assumed to be low. If the risk was correctly estimated to be higher, then it seems likely the rescue plan would become feasible (since, what other choice would NASA have?)