Next thing ya know, he's gonna say the Easter Bunny's fake...
I was thinking about that point that Luke got out of the DSII while it was blowing up as well... A good point that some individuals who either KNEW of the threat and hauled butt to a nearby hangar, or those already in the hangars may have gotten out...
Col. Veers' got out in a shuttle in the game, and it crashes due to damage incurred during his escape (Not canon, but food for thought and something I personally accept as "my canon" and my basis for the post actually). The shuttle takes damage, crashes, you protect him.
The cutting of the footage also is of interest... I'd say things weren't necessarily happening in that exact order, but they very well could have also. I'm gonna go with the "dramatic effect" thing...
One bit of evidence that backs up the "distance" theory of the X-Wings/Y-Wing/Falcon from the Death Star is that the Torp is moving at a specific speed when it exits Luke's fighter... It has to travel DOWN the exhaust port ALL the way to the center of the DS, impact, and then a resulting internal explosion occurs (An explosion that, technically, should be no different than that of the DSII where we saw individuals actually ride the shockwave out).
This leads me to believe that, at the least, the moment the shot is fired and goes IN the exhaust port that it's got a certain ammount of time NECESSARY for it to get to the center and explode then for the full explosion of the DSI to take place...
One thing necessary to come up with that exact evidence would be knowing the approximate speed of the torp (It wasn't going fast though, as it can be made out in shots), and then the other thing needed would be the distance to the DS's core...
That's a lot of specifics, but just guessing I'd think it left for SOME time for shuttles to load up with whoever was nearby then punch it out of the hangars like Luke did in ROTJ...
The ability or possibility of a warning then would come into play, or the possibility that more reserved officers like Bast had given hangar officers a "heads up" sort of that let them know to keep an eye on the battle possibly, and leave if they saw that the shot had been made...
My head hurts.