CT Red 6?

In the Battle of Yavin, Red 6 is destroyed early on in the attack. However, later, when Luke's S-foil is hit, Red Leader asks, "Red 6, can you see Red 5?" I was wondering how this was ever explained.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jek_Tono_Porkins

Behind the scenes
The Porkins character first appeared in Alan Dean Foster's novelization of the film, in which his call sign was given as Blue Four. The original script of A New Hope also used the Blue Four designation, though this was later changed to Red Four. Porkins remained as Red Four until shooting when he changed once more to the final Red Six, with Branon becoming Red Four. This is the likely explanation for another pilot calling for Red Six after Porkins has been killed.

 

Here's the explanation: It's an editing and/or writing error.

However, it doesn't really fail all that terribly in-universe. I mean, it's perfectly plausible that during the heat of battle, someone might call out to another squadron member who was already killed. So even though it was a production error, I don't even really look at it that way. Red Leader has got an awful lot on his mind!

 

I agree. Red Leader just lost track of who had already died. It was a pretty hectic battle after all.

 

Now see, I'd be okay with that if someone hadn't responded "There's a heavy fire zone (inaudible)...Red 5, where are you?" If it were someone else, say, Red 4, why didn't they start by identifying themselves as Red 4?

 

Red 4 was ill and had to stay behind at the base. #knowyourstarwars

 

Lol. That was just meant to be an example. For all we know, it was Gold 12, because whoever it was didn't identify themselves.