Business: Blamed on the Bomb

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The Civil Aeronautics Board last week concluded that the National Airlines DC-6B that crashed mysteriously in North Carolina last January, killing all 34 on board, was destroyed by a bomb that went off near the seat of Julian Frank, a financially troubled Manhattan lawyer who had just taken out about $1,000,000 in insurance. But the board did not fix responsibility on Frank, and the issue is still to be determined by the FBI. In U.S. District Court in New Haven, Conn., the insurance companies are arguing that, since Frank committed suicide, they are absolved from having to pay on his policies. Frank's widow contends that her husband was an innocent victim of the ex plosion or the target of a murder plot.

Last week the Federal Aviation Agency made a move designed to reduce temptation to plane saboteurs. It lowered the maximum air insurance a customer can buy at FAA-operated Washington National Airport from $425,000 per customer to $165,000.