Following the accidents during the 2011 season, the Red Arrows retained Red 8 and moved the original Red 10 to the Red 5 position to enable them to continue displaying with nine aircraft. In March 2012, the MOD announced that the Red Arrows will fly aerobatic displays with seven aircraft during the 2012 display season as Flt Lt Kirsty Stewart has moved into a ground based role with the team. It is believed this is due to the emotional stress she had been suffering over the loss of her two Red Arrows colleagues the previous year. As a consequence of this, Red 8 will also drop out of the display team to enable an odd number of aircraft to perform and thus maintain formation symmetry. However, the team will carry out official flypasts with nine aircraft by utilising Red 8 as well as ex-Red Arrow display pilot and current Red 10 Mike Ling. It is believed that the Red Arrows will return to a full aerobatic formation of nine aircraft in 2013
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/48215073@N00">Santosh Puthran</a>
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<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/talk2santosh/9662286718/">Red Arrows, Bournemouth Airshow 2013</a>