Federal Express plane crashes near Bismarck airport, killing pilot
     BISMARCK, N.D. - April 7, 1998 12:43 p.m. EDT - A small Federal
 Express plane crashed in a field as it neared the airport Tuesday
 morning, killing the pilot.
     The Federal Aviation Administration in Fargo confirmed the death
 of the pilot, believed to be the only one aboard the single-engine
 Cessna cargo plane. The pilot's name was not immediately released.
     The crash happened about 8:30 a.m., about an hour after the
 plane had left Grand Forks.
     "The plane crashed down in a field, and it appeared it hit very
 hard. It's torn apart. It's pretty tough," said Bismarck airport
 manager Greg Haug. The crash site is about 1 1/2 miles south of the
 airport.
     The sky was overcast and light rain fell in the area Tuesday
 morning.
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                       Pratt warns on engines
 Engine maker tells carriers jet-engine blades could develop cracks
     NEW YORK - April 7, 1998: 11:55 a.m. EDT - Warning that it im-
 properly serviced up to 8,200 jet-engine blades, Pratt & Whitney has
 urged 15 airlines to immediately remove engines equipped with the
 blades from their aircraft.
     Pratt alerted the airlines, including UAL Corp.'s United (UAL),
 Delta Air Lines (DAL) and Northwest Airlines (NWAC), in a March 20
 service bulletin that the improper cleaning of the high-pressure
 turbine blades may make them prone to microscopic cracking.
     In a worst-case scenario, that could cause what Pratt called an
 "inflight shutdown."
     But a Federal Aviation Adminstration spokeswoman, who said the
 agency has been investigating the matter for two months, said it
 would only lead to "normal" inflight shutdown - not a major type of
 engine failure.
     FAA spokeswoman Kathryn Creedy said the problem was an improp-
 erly-calibrated Pratt & Whitney machine.
     A Delta spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal the airline
 had already remedied the engine problem, removing one suspect engine
 from a 757 when it received the Pratt bulletin. United said it too
 had removed a wing engine for further scrutiny.
     Northwest declined comment.
     Pratt spokesman Mark Sullivan said the suspect parts were in-
 stalled on only eight engines used in commercial service. The
 remainder, he said, were either in inventory or on engines not
 currently in use and which are now slated for destruction.
     The engines implicated in the Pratt bulletin are used on such
 popular commercial aircraft as Boeing Co.'s 747 jumbo jet, its 777,
 767 and 757 models, and on Airbus Industries' A300, A310, A320 and
 A330 jets.
     Pratt attributed the foul-up to improper calibration of a
 machine that uses ultrasonic waves to strip grease from the blades.
 As a result, the cleaning was "overaggressive," leaving the blades
 vulnerable to "high cycle fatigue cracks."
     Industry officials told the Journal the service bulletin was
 the first by an engine maker in recent years urging an airline to
 take its aircraft out of service due to service problems.
     Boeing (BA) says engine malfunction has been the primary cause
 of at least seven fatal commercial aircraft crashes since 1989.
     The stock of United Technologies (UTX), which is the parent of
 Pratt, fell 1-3/8 to 96 late Tuesday morning.
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