Why does Gary Paulsen have a search airplane pass over but not find Brian?

The plane flying over Brian creates suspense.

When Brian’s plane crash lands in the Canadian wilderness, he is on his own.  The pilot is dead, he is not sure if the mayday signal was received, and he has no way to communicate with anyone.

Brian knows that search planes will be sent out to look for him as soon as anyone realizes that he did not reach his destination and especially if they realize the...

The plane flying over Brian creates suspense.

When Brian’s plane crash lands in the Canadian wilderness, he is on his own.  The pilot is dead, he is not sure if the mayday signal was received, and he has no way to communicate with anyone.

Brian knows that search planes will be sent out to look for him as soon as anyone realizes that he did not reach his destination and especially if they realize the plane crashed.

They would look for him, look for the plane. His father and mother would be frantic. They would tear the world apart to find him. Brian had seen searches on the news, seen movies about lost planes.  When a plane went down they mounted extensive searches and almost always they found the plane within a day or two. (Ch. 5)

Brian makes preparations for the search planes.  He wants to get a signal fire going as soon as possible so that they can find him.  He is sure that if he gets a fire going, the plane will see the smoke and he will be rescued.  He doesn’t know how far off course the plane flew.

However, Brian is there for long enough that he eventually forgets to think about the searchers.  He realizes that he has been there for days with no rescue.  He is worried about forgetting. 

When Brian finally sees a plane, it doesn’t find him.

Gone. He stood on the bluff over the lake, his face cooking in the roaring bonfire, watching the clouds of ash and smoke going into the sky and thought—no, more than thought—he knew then that he would not get out of this place. Not now, not ever. (Ch. 12)

Brian loses track of the plane, and he is devastated.  The plane left him behind, and he is not sure when another one will find him.  Eventually, Brian does get found.  However, this missed attempt greatly increases the suspense.  What kind of story would it be if the plane goes down and then a search plane finds Brian right away?  That would not be much of a story.  A memorable story has to see Brian struggle a bit first.