Earhart avoided an explosive crash by cutting off the switches on her plane's two powerful motors. That prevented 800 gallons of gasoline in the tanks from catching fire. But the left wing had struck the ground, the left side landing gear was crushed, and the right wheel was stripped off.
While waiting for repairs to be made on her plane, Earhart flew another aircraft to the Cochran ranch, to rest up before trying again to circumnavigate the world along the equator. Barbara, who had had so little of it, enjoyed her good luck when while she was visiting at the ranch, the most famous aviatrix of the day joined her and Jackie.
Barbara liked Amelia Earhart's friendly smile and casual good looks. Her short hair was boyishly tousled and she dressed like a tomboy in plaid shirt and men's pants.
After introducing Barbara, they sat in the parlor and talked flying. Jackie had to know, and asked Earhart, who sat Indian-style on the floor in front of the unlit fireplace: "After the crash-landing... Were you really so calm as to say from the cockpit, 'Something must have gone wrong'?"
"I tried to be casual about it," Earhart said, "but actually, onlookers said my face had been deathly pale."
"But you're going to try it again," Jackie said. "Circle the world along the equator."
Earhart almost laughed. "Of course!"
That afternoon, Barbara learned the three of them had something else in common besides flying. Jackie suggested they all go horseback riding before dinner. Riding on the Cochran ranch with the two most famous American women pilots in the world became something she would never forget. Nor their playful swim in the outdoor pool afterward.
After dinner that night, Jackie said she worried that if her friend's plane might be forced down during her round-the-world flight, would she, Jackie, be successful in using her telepathy powers to locate her? The friends began playing a game of parapsychological "thought transference" in which Amelia, if lost, would communicate psychically with Jackie.
The weekend visit to the Cochran ranch ended all too fast. Barbara was back at her airport outside Mohave a few weeks later when, on July 2, she learned over the radio that Earhart's plane, with her and Fred Noonan, as navigator, was reported missing over the Pacific. It had failed to reach Howland Island, a tiny coral isle 1,532 miles southwest of Honolulu. Reports conflicted over what Earhart's last words had been. One said she radioed in a faint distress call, "We are flying northeast." Another said her final words were, "Circling -- cannot see island -- gas running low."