Isn't it a bit odd that Brian gets into two separate predicaments as a result of someone dying or coming close to it in his presence? In Brian's Return, it is revealed that he can get pretty violent. Perhaps, in the first book, he snaps as a result of the stress surrounding his parents' separation and attacks the pilot in a fit of rage. After dealing with the trauma of being stranded in the wilderness, he (reluctantly) returns in The River, where the government researcher is nearly killed. Could Brian have suffered some kind of panic attack returning to the wilderness where he attacking the pilot? Was it lightning, or was it Brian, that resulted in the man's serious injuries?