AP F-18 jet fighter WASHINGTON (APBNews.com) -- The U.S. Navy pilot whose mysterious 1991 disappearance as the first casualty of the Persian Gulf War sparked a controversy in Congress and the Pentagon may have survived his plane crash in Iraq, according to a Pentagon document obtained by APBNews.com.

The new revelation comes in a memo about Lt. Cmdr. Michael S. Speicher authored by an assistant secretary of defense. The memo provides previously unpublished information about Speicher's condition immediately after the crash, as well as about actions that may have been taken by the Iraqis to alter evidence at the crash site.

Speicher, whose F-18 crashed in western Iraq during the opening phase of the war, became a cause for MIA/POW advocates after secret documents obtained from the Pentagon by The New York Times in 1998 revealed that a U.S. spy satellite had detected a man-made symbol near the crash site. Speicher is the only U.S. casualty of that conflict whose remains have not been found.

The Times reported that shortly after the plane disappeared, some military officials believed Speicher may have survived the crash and that the government had a moral obligation to locate him. U.S. military authorities prepared to launch a secret mission to the site but abruptly canceled those plans. The full details of the affair have never been made public.

Cut out of his flight suit

The July 19, 1999, briefing memo by a deputy assistant secretary of defense reports for the first time that after the wreckage of Speicher's plane was located, the Pentagon determined that the 33-year-old pilot had been cut out of his flight suit. The memo said that the condition of the flight suit and related equipment indicated that Speicher "was probably severely injured or dead when these items were removed." At the same time, the memo notes that "the flight suit was lying on the surface with minimal evidence of weathering and minimal adherent soil" -- conditions that suggest that the suit was placed there after having been stored somewhere else in Iraq.

"This is a breakthrough," said Dolores Alfond, national chairwoman of the National Alliance of Families for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen (NAFRAMS), an advocacy group for the return of missing servicemen. "Saddam Hussein could be holding a live POW. If they have the flight suit, he's got to have been in it." The Defense Department memo noted that the flight suit and life-support equipment may have been moved after the crash -- suggesting that Iraqis may have tampered with the physical evidence at the crash site.

Change in official status?

U.S. Navy F-18s launch off Navy carrier. Until this spring, Defense Department officials still insisted they did not know if there was enough evidence to change Speicher's official status from "killed in action" to "missing in action."

In March, Sens. Bob Smith, R-N.H., and Rod Grams, R-Minn., requested that Speicher's official status of killed in action, body not recovered (KIA-BNA) be changed to missing in action, which would reflect doubt as to whether he survived the crash.

According to published reports, the senators were informed March 12 by the Defense Department's POW-Missing Personnel Office that "we don't know" if Speicher may have survived the crash, based on evidence available.

Not Speicher's body

After the war ended and in an act that further complicated the case, the Iraqis handed over remains they claimed belonged to Speicher, but DNA tests and blood typing proved that they were not his.

At the time, Army Gen. John Shalikashvili rejected a plan for a covert operation into Iraq to search for information concerning the crash and Speicher. Reports say he decided the special operation was too dangerous to put other soldiers at risk for a 3-year-old crash. Instead, a Pentagon/Red Cross team arranged a search effort with Hussein's permission, but by the time they arrived, the site had been excavated. Tami Sheheri is an APBNews.com staff writer (tami.sheheri@apbnews.com).