For years, it was unclear whether Speicher was dead or a prisoner of war. Politically-motivated changes in the pilot’s official status significantly contributed to the resulting controversy.

The day after the shoot-down, the military declared Speicher “killed in action.” But in fact, the Pentagon was uncertain about his fate and eventually switched his status “missing in action.”

It was only in August 2009 — 18 years later — that Navy officials confirmed that the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology had positively identified remains it had recovered in Iraq as those of Speicher.

https://warisboring.com/who-shot-down-u-s-navy-pilot-scott-speicher/