Malaysia Airlines Ukraine Crash: ‘Unreal’ Scenes from Photographer Jerome Sessini

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Warning: Graphic images and details can be found in the photographs above and in the text below.

Late Thursday afternoon, a field of sunflowers in the village of Torez in eastern Ukraine was transformed into a scene of a tragedy when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was brought down by a surface-to-air missile.

Jerome Sessini, a French photographer with the agency Magnum Photos, was one of the first people to arrive at the scene. A veteran war photographer who has worked in conflict sites like Iraq and Somalia, Sessini says he wasn’t prepared for the weight of what he saw.

Sessini, who had been working in a nearby mining village in Donetsk, first heard about the crash when his driver received a call from a local journalist, who explained that a plane had been downed in nearby Torez, apparently by pro-Russian rebels. Initially assuming it was a Ukrainian military plane—the pro-Russian rebels had already destroyed a military transport plane and reportedly brought down two other military aircraft—Sessini and his driver headed out.

“As we made our way to Torez, we learned that it was in fact a civilian plane,” the photographer told TIME. It didn’t take the pair long to reach the scene and they had no trouble accessing the crash site, as there were very few people in the area at the time. Yet the rebels soon arrived, and they initially gave Sessini trouble, taking his memory card away. They eventually returned it and allowed Sessini to take photographs.

“[What I saw] was horrific, almost unreal,” he says. In addition to the charred wreckage and debris of the destroyed Boeing 777 plane, there were bodies strewn across the fields. Some were still attached to their seats. “I was in shock. I don’t think I ever felt so sick.”

More than a hundred bodies have been found so far, with some located as far as 6.2 miles (10 km) away from the crash site. “I found one body that went through the roof of a house and landed in someone’s bedroom,” says Sessini. “It’s a real nightmare.”

Sessini noted that while some of the bodies were virtually intact, others had broken apart in the explosion and crash. But for the seasoned photographer, one of the hardest sights to take in wasn’t the dead themselves, but the mementos from their lives, strewn across the ground. “One of the saddest parts was to see all of their luggage in the grass,” he says. “All these Duty Free bags, the swimsuits, the children’s books.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to board a plane without thinking about these images,” Sessini says.

interview by Olivier Laurent


Jerome Sessini is a French photojournalist represented by Magnum. Megan Gibson is a writer and reporter at the London bureau of TIME. Find her on Twitter at @MeganJGibson. Olivier Laurent is the editor of TIME LightBox. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @olivierclaurent.


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The body of a passenger aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 that fell through the roof of a home near the crash site in Rasipnoye, Ukraine, July 18, 2014.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
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Igor Tiponov, 26, in the home where the corpse of a passenger aboard the fallen Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 fell through the bedroom roof in Rasipnoye, Ukraine, July 18, 2014.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
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Miners and rescuers scan the fields in search of bodies at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Rasipnoye, Ukraine, July 18, 2014.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
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A bare patch in wheat field marks where a victim of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 fell after the passenger plane was shot down in Torez, Ukraine, July 18, 2014.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
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Miners and rescuers scan the fields in search of bodies at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Rasipnoye, Ukraine, July 18, 2014.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
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A young victim of the Malaysia Airlines crash is covered with plastic, July 18, 2014.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
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The wreckage of the Malaysian airliner carrying 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur after it crashed, near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine, July 17, 2014.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
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Luggage at the crash site of the Malaysian airliner reportedly carrying 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine on July 17, 2014.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
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The corpse of a passenger aboard the Malaysia Airlines flight that was shot down over Ukraine, Torez, Ukraine, July 17, 2014.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
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A firefighter and an armed man look at the remains and the corpses of passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 that was shot down over eastern Ukraine, July 17, 2014.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
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Locals at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 carrying 298 passengers that was shot down near the village of Grabovo, eastern Ukraine, July 17, 2014.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
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Firefighters at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Torez, eastern Ukraine, July 17, 2014.Jerome Sessini—Magnum
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The remains of a passenger on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 that was shot over eastern Ukraine, July 17, 2014.Jerome Sessini—Magnum

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