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Near the end of Star Wars IV: A New Hope, we see four spacecraft flying from the Death Star just moments before it explodes.

enter image description here

As you can see, there is the Millennium Falcon crewed by Han and Chewbacca, a pair of X-Wings which has to be Luke and Wedge, and then in the bottom corner, we see a Y-Wing. Who is this pilot and did he have any screen time to justify him actually existing in this moment? For as far as I can tell during the first trench runs, they were conducted by the Y-Wings and all of them seemed to have been destroyed during their run. So as I asked, who is flying this ship and how did survive to this moment?

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    +1 for hand-drawn circles (and a good question). But how did you know which X-Wing is Luke's and which is Wedge's?
    – bitmask
    Mar 17, 2013 at 1:26
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    @bitmask, obviously, the one who's furthest back has to be Luke, which leaves the one closer to us for Wedge.
    – Martha
    Mar 17, 2013 at 2:50
  • I'm curious who it is, too. If you look in the hangar after they all land, Luke and Wedge and Han, etc are there, but there is another guy in a flight suit as well. I have to assume that's the mystery pilot. I know it doesn't help much, but at least we can put a face to the man/pilot.
    – BiggsTrek
    Feb 8, 2015 at 21:51
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    This also poses the question: why were the X-Wing pilots doing the last run when there was a dedicated bomber still in the battle that the X-Wings could provide cover for?
    – Ellesedil
    Jan 26, 2016 at 21:32
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    As used in Rebel propaganda, the ancient and Venerable Y-Wing is included in the shot of a Rebel squadron fleeing the scene of the unwarranted Death Star attack to give snubfighter pilots a new hope that their motley old equipment can stand a change against modern, technologically superior TIE Interceptors.
    – PhasedOut
    Nov 21, 2016 at 16:28

4 Answers 4

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Wookieepedia indicates that Keyan Farlander is the pilot of the Y-wing fighter seen leaving the Death Star alongside Luke, Wedge and the Millennium Falcon.

This seems kinda thinly sourced, however.

  • For the main attack on the Death Star, Farlander was temporarily reassigned to Gold Squadron and flew a Y-wing in the battle (src: X-wing Collector's CD-ROM: The Official Strategy Guide according to Wookieepedia).

  • Star Wars Blueprints: Rebel Edition indicates that he was "Gold Seven".

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    Farlander is the player character from X-Wing. So who's flying that Y-Wing? You are!
    – Stephen Collings
    Mar 21, 2013 at 19:08
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    It may seem to be thinly sourced, but the Official Strategy Guide is almost it's own novelization, with the main character actually describing everything that happens in the game in his own narration, and 'between mission' narratives (including some that are longer then the mission narratives themselves) adding character background and details. It's at least as detailed as most of the novels.
    – Mark
    Mar 25, 2015 at 12:38
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Evaan Verlaine (Canon) / Keyan Farlander (Legends)

Canon

It has been confirmed that the pilot who survived alongside Wedge and Luke was Evaan Verlaine. Per the Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy factbook

REBEL ALLIANCE: Of the thirty rebel starfighter pilots who took part in the battle, only three survived: Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles, and Evaan Verlaine. The pilots’ sacrifice saved all of the personnel on the ground and secured the survival of the Rebellion.

We can also see this by a simple process of elimination from the Star Wars: Galactic Atlas factbook which shows that she was part of Gold Squadron piloting an Y-Wing. Of the named pilots, we saw all of the others (Dutch, Pops and Dex) killed on screen.

enter image description here

Legends

It was relayed by Steve Sansweet, former Head of Content/Fan Relations at Lucasfilm, in the "Ask the Jedi Council" feature on the old Starwars.com website that the identity of the Y-Wing pilot was canonically unknown but highly likely to be Keyan Farlander, a character introduced in the 1994 LucasArts game X-Wing.

Possibly of more interest is that other pilots survived, just off-screen.

Q. In Episode IV after the Battle of Yavin there are four ships: Luke and Wedge in their X-wings, Han in the Falcon, and a Y-wing fighter. Who was in the remaining Y-wing ship?

A. It's pretty definite that more than just those four ships survived from the Alliance attack on the Death Star; others just aren't visible on screen. The Y-wing pilot has never been definitively identified. But, if you're the gambling kind, I'd say the smart money is on Keyan Farlander, a starfighter pilot introduced in the original X-wing game from LucasArts. Back in 1992, LucasArts published a novella starring Farlander that came with some copies of the game. The strategy guide for the game continues that story and places Farlander aboard a Y-wing fighter during the final assault on the Death Star.

Farlander survives the battle, making him a good candidate for the Y-wing pilot seen at the end of the film.

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  • I found this video on YouTube that adds more information to your answer: youtube.com/watch?v=jPQEr9g5U8A
    – Chris
    Oct 29, 2017 at 16:19
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    @Chris - Well, it adds a bit more info about the characters. I haven't seen anything that needs adding into my answer.
    – Valorum
    Oct 29, 2017 at 16:26
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It's never said in any of the movies. I don't recall if it's in the novelization.

I like to think it's one of the future Rogues. Taking the risky step of using information from the licensed works (the novels and comics, but not the video games (which I know little of))...

One of the X-Wing novels said Tycho was still in Imperial service at the time of Episode IV.

I believe both novels and comics say Hobbie defected from Imperial service alongside Biggs. One of the comics goes on to suggest he was on Yavin at the time of the Battle, but had been incapacitated some days before by a run-in with some local flora or fauna.

I suggest it's Wes Janson. The books say he was a Y-wing pilot (Tierfon Yellow Aces) before being an X-wing pilot. He says (in one book) something like "Wedge is the only pilot to survive two Death Star runs". I take that to mean "actual trench/reactor runs", which could fit - whoever the Y-wing pilot was, he wasn't on a trench run. Probably on diversionary assaults.

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  • Can you offer some more links to back up your assertions? I'm sure you're right but just saying "it's one of the books" isn't really getting into the right spirit.
    – Valorum
    May 17, 2014 at 14:50
  • Actually, it couldn't have been Wes, because after he was transferred from the Tierfon Yellow Aces, to the Red Squadron in Yavin IV, he came down with a bad strain of Heskens Fever and was unable to fly! Jek Porkins, took his roster placement! Still, if Wes would have flown, it would have been an X-Wing, not a Y-Wing!
    – user62711
    Mar 1, 2016 at 18:52
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The answer is Keyan Farlander is the Y-Wing pilot, a famous ace in Star Wars.

2 out of 12 of Rogue Squadron Survived. 1 out of 7 of Gold Squadron Survived.

More Extended Universe pilots, who survived Battle of Hoth and Battle of Endor also received brief screen time in the second movies.

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    How is any information in this answer that's actually related to the question different from the accepted answer?
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Oct 16, 2013 at 12:42

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