Senate Calls for Investigation of Plane Crashes, Safety Conditions; Curley Faces Jail for Mail Fraud

WASHINGTON, January 13. -- Cries that recent airplane crashes are making the American people "afraid to fly" and demands for investigation were voiced in Congress today on the eve of a Senate Committee's scheduled broad examination of commercial aviation.

Although this inquiry by the Senate Commerce Committee will embrace the question of safety precautions, House members urged a separate investigation by that branch of Congress.

"The American people are horrified and scared to death,' Rep, Rivers (D.S.C.) told the House. "If there is something wrong with the whole doggone set-up, then something should be done."

He called attention to the crash of an Eastern Airlines plane near Galax, Va., yesterday with the loss of 18 lives and to the emergency landing last week of an airliner on a Long Island, N. Y., beach.

Joining Rivers, Rep. Hinshaw (R-Cal.) asserted there should be a "complete and thorough inquiry in hope of finding a remedy.' Senator Brewster (R-Maine), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, said "people are getting afraid to fly."

Senator McCarran (D-Nov.), addressing the Senato, raised the question whether alarums are not out of order.

He said that domestic and international operations of U. S. airlines have shown steady declines in passenger fatalities.

Airline men, taking the same view, acknowledged, however, that air travel has fallen off. They emphasized that there is customarily a seasonal lull at this time of year, though some of them said plane crashes were also a factor in the situation