Help with adding variables to other script

Hey all!

RECAP: Why is this returning null and how can I fix it? To my knowledge its properly referenced.

LONG VERSION: I've been at this for a while now, and I can't seem to find the root of my problem. In the game I'm creating, you intercept bombers by shooting their engines out. Pretty simple right? I have 2 scripts, one on the bomber itself named BomberBrain and one on it's engines, BomberEngineHealth. What I want to happen is when an engine is shot, it adds +5 to the fallSpeed inside BomberBrain, so it slowly drifts downwards the more engines are shot. The problem is whenever I shoot out an engine, I immediately get "Failed to fall".... meaning the fallSpeed is never added to the BomberBrain's fallSpeed variable.

 public class BomberBrain : MonoBehaviour {
 
     public float speed = 0.1f;
     public float fallSpeed = 0.0f;
     public GameObject explosion;
 
     public Animation anim;
     private BomberEngineHealth bomberEngineHealth;
 
     void Start () {
 
         bomberEngineHealth = GetComponent<BomberEngineHealth>();
     }
 
     void Update() {
         //fly the bomber forwards
         transform.Translate(Vector3.forward * Time.deltaTime * speed);
         //bring 'er down
         transform.Translate(Vector3.down * Time.deltaTime * fallSpeed);
     }
 
     void OnTriggerEnter(Collider other)
     {
         if (other.gameObject.tag == "Ground")
         {
             Instantiate(explosion, gameObject.transform.position, gameObject.transform.rotation);
             Destroy(gameObject, 0.1f);
             Debug.Log("All hands lost!");
         }
     }
 }

And here is the BomberEngineHealth script

 public class BomberEngineHealth : MonoBehaviour {
 
     public float engineHealth = 50f;
     public GameObject explosion;
     public bool hasExploded;
     public GameObject smokeHolder;
     private BomberBrain bomberBrain;
 
     // Use this for initialization
     void Start () {
 
         smokeHolder.SetActive(false);
 
         bomberBrain = GetComponent<BomberBrain>();
 
     }

     public void TakeDamage(float amount)
     {
         engineHealth -= amount;
         if (engineHealth <= 0f)
             {
                 Die();
                 Fall();
         }
     }
 
     void Die()
     {
         
         if (!hasExploded)
         {
             Instantiate(explosion, gameObject.transform.position, gameObject.transform.rotation);
             hasExploded = true;
 
             smokeHolder.SetActive(true);               
         }    
         Destroy(gameObject, 0.1f);
     }
 
     void Fall()
     {
         if (bomberBrain != null)
         {
             Debug.Log("Fall");
             bomberBrain.fallSpeed += 5;
         }
         else Debug.Log("Failed to fall");
     }
 }