Nothing more had been heard from the Electra. If Earhart and Noonan had survived and not crashed on land but more likely in the Pacific, the waters in that region were shark-infested.
Jackie Cochran told her husband, "I do 'see' her. I just can't prove it to anyone."
But she did reveal a psychic experience to Earhart's husband. When George Palmer Putnum the book publisher called her from Los Angeles and asked if she had any insight that could help in finding the missing plane, Jackie said she had. He wrote down these notes from what she envisioned had happened: "Amelia out of fuel... landed in the ocean northwest of Howland and not too far away. The plane is floating. Amelia is not hurt, but Fred Noonan bumped against the bulkhead during the water landing and is unconscious with an injured head. There is an American boat called the Itasca in the vicinity and also a Japanese fishing boat."
In reality, on the morning that the Electra was reported missing, a Coast Guard cutter in the area named the Itasca had radioed that "the sea is smooth, with visibility general." It later helped in a wide search for the missing plane.
The following day, Jackie phoned Putnam to say she still saw Amelia's plane afloat in the ocean. It was drifting eastward, north of Howland Island.
On the third day, however, she called again to reluctantly tell Putnam it was too late to rescue Amelia. She was gone.
Putnam told her that his wife had planned her globe-circling adventure to be her last. She would not give up flying, but there would be no more spectacular flights. First, however, she wanted to fulfill her life's dream of flying completely around the world. Then they were going to settle down to a normal, peaceful life in southern California.
After telling Putnam she had given up hope of her friend being found alive, Jackie went immediately to the cathedral in Los Angeles to light candles and pray for Amelia's soul. She told Barbara later that she would never attempt extrasensory perception again, because it had not helped find her great friend.
Intensive searching in the Pacific by sixty planes and many ships failed to find any sight of the plane or its occupants. The search ended at sunset sixteen days later.
Over the years, Barbara and countless others around the world wondered about stories that circulated. They said Earhart had been on a secret mission from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to spy on the Japanese and report if she saw evidence they were preparing for war. Others said she was captured by Japanese soldiers on a deserted island. Officially, however, her plane ran out of fuel, crashed into the sea, and quickly sank.