[Steven W.]

Thanks for that - I glanced through and ended up here:

AFTERMATH - I think the tie is to McCain.

"No clear identity of the four "pirates/pilots" was revealed in the transmissions. From POW interviews it is likely that at least one was an American ..."

[TXnMA]

From near the end of the document:

One body was retrieved from the '47's wreckage by the SAR team. Later, a joint Lao-US team recovered the other seven bodies -- and all eight were positively ID as members of the A/C's aircrew by our ID unit in Hawaii.

Is it possible the four were a red herring?