--- description: The author of this week's TIME cover story and an acclaimed Getty photographer paint a rarely seen image of the aftermath of MH17 title: Malaysia Airlines Ukraine Crash Site: Eyewitness Accounts of Tragedy image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57420efb8ce3acb4/69869cf535ba6f6c2fc03233/452334248.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # MH17: Eyewitness Accounts of Horror and Confusion at Crash Site  by [Francesca Trianni](/author/francesca-trianni/)  ## Francesca Trianni Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 24, 2014 12:55 PM CUT  GRABOVKA, UKRAINE - JULY 18: The tail from an Malaysia Airlines plane crash lies in a wheat field on July 18, 2014 in Grabovka, Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed yesterday on the Ukraine/Russia border near the town of Shaktersk. The Boeing 777 was carrying 298 people including crew members, the majority of the passengers being Dutch nationals, believed to be at least 173, 44 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians and 9 Britons. It has been speculated that the passenger aircraft was shot down by a surface to air missile by warring factions in the region. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images) GRABOVKA, UKRAINE - JULY 18: The tail from an Malaysia Airlines plane crash lies in a wheat field on July 18, 2014 in Grabovka, Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed yesterday on the Ukraine/Russia border near the town of Shaktersk. The Boeing 777 was carrying 298 people including crew members, the majority of the passengers being Dutch nationals, believed to be at least 173, 44 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians and 9 Britons. It has been speculated that the passenger aircraft was shot down by a surface to air missile by warring factions in the region. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)Brendan Hoffman - Getty Images  by [Francesca Trianni](/author/francesca-trianni/)  ## Francesca Trianni Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 24, 2014 12:55 PM CUT [Last Thursday, ](http://time.com/3001807/ukraine-crash-scene-images/ "undefined")a flowered wheat field in eastern Ukraine became the scene of an unconceivable tragedy when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 [was brought down](http://time.com/3002806/malaysia-airlines-ukraine-crash-flight-mh17-wreckage-revealing/ "undefined") by a surface-to-air missile. A week after the disaster, TIME reporter Simon Shuster and Getty photographer Brendan Hoffman – both on site within hours of the disaster – give an inside perspective of the aftermath of MH17’s crash. From the challenges of photographing unimaginable scenes of sorrow on the ground, to the questions surrounding [the men](http://time.com/3018279/malaysia-airlines-razak-donetsk-rebels-borodai/ "undefined") who took control of the site, Shuster and Hoffman paint a unique picture of the legacy of Flight MH17. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3028452/mh17-eyewitness-accounts-of-horror-and-confusion-at-crash-site/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3028452/mh17-eyewitness-accounts-of-horror-and-confusion-at-crash-site/"},"headline":"MH17: Eyewitness Accounts of Horror and Confusion at Crash Site","datePublished":"2014-07-24T12:55:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:19:24.055Z","description":"The author of this week's TIME cover story and an acclaimed Getty photographer paint a raw image – through words and photographs – of their reactions to the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine","url":"https://time.com/3028452/mh17-eyewitness-accounts-of-horror-and-confusion-at-crash-site/","keywords":["Ukraine","russia","#MH17","Flight MH17"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57420efb8ce3acb4/69869cf535ba6f6c2fc03233/452334248.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Francesca Trianni","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/francesca-trianni/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt57420efb8ce3acb4/69869cf535ba6f6c2fc03233/452334248.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Air Malaysian Passenger Jet Crashes in Eastern Ukraine","caption":"Air Malaysian Passenger Jet Crashes in Eastern Ukraine","creditText":"Brendan Hoffman - Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3028452/mh17-eyewitness-accounts-of-horror-and-confusion-at-crash-site/","name":"MH17: Eyewitness Accounts of Horror and Confusion at Crash Site"}}]}] ```