On May 29, 2002, a Piper 28 A aircraft flying from the Balice airfield near Kraków to Łososina Dolna crashed in Rozdział, near the summit of Łopusz Zachodni. Four people were killed: a 31-year-old Polish woman and three Germans: the 66-year-old pilot, a 45-year-old consultant from the German headquarters of the Real company, and a 58-year-old representative of another German firm.
The aircraft, which was flying in fog, most likely approached the Łopusz ridge from the northwest direction. But it was flying too low and clipped the trees. The first tree was cut as if by a saw at a height of about 5 meters. Some 2–3 meters further, one of the aircraft’s wings struck a thicker tree but could no longer cut through it — it only tore off from the aircraft’s fuselage and remained on the tree, badly bent. The rest of the aircraft fell almost straight down. An impact was heard in nearby houses, located about 300 meters away. However, no one realized what had happened in the nearby forest. The tall trees concealed the glow of the aircraft fire. Scorched branches on nearby trees suggested that the flames reached a height of several meters. The pilot was short about 20 meters of altitude and about 300 meters of distance for a safe passage over the ridge. Only 12 kilometers remained to the airfield in Łososina.
After a few hours, the radio broadcast information about the disappearance of the light aircraft. When the aircraft vanished from the radar of the control tower at the Balice airport, police, fire services, three Mountain Volunteer Rescue Service (GOPR) groups from Rabka, Bochnia, and Limanowa, and a road rescue team from Limanowa were dispatched to the probable crash site in the densely forested hills on the border of the Limanowa and Bochnia districts. The GOPR was alerted. The search began. The crash site was discovered by two residents of Rozdział: Stefan Ptaszek and Stanisław Szewczyk, who then notified the police station in Żegocina.
Shortly after the crash, the GOPR rescuers who were conducting the search for the missing aircraft erected a stone cairn with a wooden cross by the road, running about 30 meters south of the crash site. In turn, the Rozdział firefighters, with the consent of the State Forests, built a symbolic grave at the crash site — a monument to commemorate the place of the tragedy and the memory of the victims.
