Crash of a Cessna 425 Conquest in Dayton

The aircraft involved was experimentally configured with 4-bladed props and was on a test flight to determine handling characteristics following a throttle chop to idle power at 50 feet agl. This maneuver had been accomplished twice on the test flight without incident. On the third landing, the pilot later stated, that he retarded the throttles more briskly than on previous approaches. Observers on the plane and on the ground then saw a yaw and a wing drop. The right gear struck the runway first, followed by the left and nose gears. All three gear then sheared off. The aircraft slid to a stop off the runway 975 feet from initial impact. A postaccident teardown of the props revealed no preexisting misadjustments or abnormalities.