Moises Saman Captures Dramatic Images of Iraqi Helicopter Crash

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A wounded man is carried away from an Iraqi Air Force helicopter that crashed shortly after takeoff during a rescue mission. Sinjar Mountains, Iraq, Aug. 12, 2014.
A wounded man is carried away from an Iraqi Air Force helicopter that crashed shortly after takeoff during a rescue mission. Sinjar Mountains, Iraq, Aug. 12, 2014.Moises Saman—Magnum for TIME
By Olivier Laurent

A helicopter delivering aid to Yazidi civilians crashed in Northern Iraq, killing its pilot and injuring several passengers including photographer Moises Saman, an award-winning Magnum photographer on assignment for TIME.

Speaking shortly after the crash, Saman explained that the helicopter crashed soon after having picked up internally displaced Iraqis of the Yazidi ethnicity. The photographer was pinned down by the weight of some of the passengers for a while but suffered just a minor cut on his head, which was later treated at a hospital in Dohuk.

Another photographer, Adam Ferguson, and the New York Times’ Paris bureau chief Alissa J. Rubin were also on board and sustained minor injuries. “If we had been another 50 meters higher we’d all be dead,” Ferguson told the Times.

The video below shows footage captured by CNN on Monday. The Iraqi Air Force and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were flying over the front lines to deliver support to trapped civilians. People desperate for aid and an escape raced toward the helicopter, throwing their children aboard.

TIME will continue to update this article with the latest news and photographs.

Reporting by TIME‘s Dan Kedmey

Moises Saman is an award-winning photographer represented by Magnum Photos.

Olivier Laurent is the editor of TIME LightBox. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @olivierclaurent

Mikko Takkunen is an Associate Photo Editor at Time.com

Survivors of the crash, including Yazidi refugees and Kurdish and Iraqi Army personnel, onboard a rescue helicopter that transported them from the crash site back to Kurdish-controlled Dohuk Province. Sinjar Mountains, Iraq, Aug. 12, 2014.
Survivors of the crash, including Yazidi refugees and Kurdish and Iraqi Army personnel, onboard a rescue helicopter that transported them from the crash site back to Kurdish-controlled Dohuk Province. Sinjar Mountains, Iraq, Aug. 12, 2014.Moises Saman—Magnum for TIME
A wounded man is carried away from an Iraqi Air Force helicopter that crashed shortly after takeoff during a rescue mission. Sinjar Mountains, Iraq, Aug. 12, 2014.
A wounded man is carried away from an Iraqi Air Force helicopter that crashed shortly after takeoff during a rescue mission. Sinjar Mountains, Iraq, Aug. 12, 2014.Moises Saman—Magnum for TIME
A boy whose mother was onboard the helicopter cries as he does not know her fate. She survived. Sinjar Mountains, Iraq, Aug. 12, 2014.
A boy whose mother was onboard the helicopter cries as he does not know her fate. She survived. Sinjar Mountains, Iraq, Aug. 12, 2014.Moises Saman—Magnum for TIME

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