Death of Diana, Princess of Wales
In the early hours of 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales died from injuries sustained in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris, France. Dodi Fayed, Diana's partner, and the driver, Mercedes-Benz chauffeur Henri Paul, were both found dead inside the car. Diana's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was the only survivor of the crash, albeit seriously injured. The subsequent investigation into the crash remained controversial for decades, with many challenging the official narrative of Diana's death.
In 1999, a French investigation concluded that Paul, who was intoxicated and under the influence of prescription drugs, lost control of the vehicle at high speed. The report held him solely responsible for the crash. Paul was the deputy head of security at the Hôtel Ritz Paris and had earlier confronted paparazzi waiting for Diana and Fayed outside the hotel. Antidepressants and traces of an anti-psychotic found in his blood may have compounded his impairment. In 2008, a British inquest, Operation Paget, returned a verdict of unlawful killing, citing the grossly negligent driving of both Paul and the pursuing paparazzi. While initial media reports suggested Rees-Jones survived because he was wearing a seat belt, later investigations confirmed that none of the car's occupants were wearing seat belts.
Diana was 36 years old at the time of her death. Her death prompted an international outpouring of grief, and her televised funeral was watched by an estimated 2.5billion people worldwide.
Circumstances
Events preceding the crash
On Saturday, 30 August 1997, Diana travelled from Olbia Airport, Sardinia, on a private jet and arrived at Le Bourget Airport in Paris with Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed, son of businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed. They had stopped there en route to London, having spent the preceding nine days together on board his father's yacht Jonikal on the French and Italian Riviera. They had intended to stay there for the night. His father was the owner of the Hôtel Ritz Paris and resided in an apartment on Rue Arsène Houssaye, a short distance from the hotel; just off the Avenue des Champs Elysées.Henri Paul, deputy head of security at the Ritz, had been instructed to drive the hired black 1994 armoured Mercedes-Benz S 280 saloon registered 688LTV75 in order to elude the paparazzi; a decoy vehicle left the Ritz first from the main entrance on Place Vendôme, attracting a throng of photographers. Diana and Fayed then departed from the hotel's rear entrance, Rue Cambon, at around 00:20 on 31 August CEST, heading for the apartment in Rue Arsène Houssaye. They did this to avoid the nearly thirty photographers waiting in front of the hotel. Diana and Fayed were the rear passengers; Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Fayed family's personal protection team, was in the front passenger seat. None of the vehicle's occupants were wearing seat belts. After leaving the Rue Cambon and crossing the Place de la Concorde, they drove along Cours la Reine and Cours Albert 1er – the embankment road along the right bank of the River Seine – into the Place de l'Alma underpass.
The crash
At 00:23 CEST, Paul lost control of the car at the entrance to the Pont de l'Alma underpass. The car reportedly struck a white Fiat Uno, swerved to the left of the two-lane carriageway and collided head-on with the 13th column that supported the roof. It was travelling at an estimated speed of more than twice the speed limit of the tunnel. It then spun, hit the stone wall of the tunnel backwards and finally came to a stop. The impact caused substantial damage, particularly to the front half of the vehicle, as there was no guard rail to prevent this. Witnesses arriving shortly after the crash reported smoke. They also reported that photographers on motorcycles "swarmed the Mercedes sedan before it entered the tunnel".Aftermath
The photographers had been driving slower and were some distance behind the Mercedes. When they reached the scene, some rushed to help, trying to open the doors and help the victims, while some of them took pictures. Police arrived around ten minutes after the crash at 00:30, and an ambulance was on site five minutes later, according to witnesses. France Info radio reported that one photographer was beaten by witnesses who were horrified by the scene. Five of the photographers were arrested directly. Later, two others were detained and around 20 rolls of film were taken directly from the photographers while police later impounded their vehicles. Firefighters arrived at the scene to help remove the victims.Rees-Jones sustained multiple serious facial injuries and a head contusion, but was conscious. The front airbags had functioned normally. Some media reports claimed that Rees-Jones was the only occupant wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, but it was later determined that "no one inside the car had been wearing" one. Diana was sitting in the rear passenger seat on the right-hand side and was critically injured, but she also remained conscious. The crash mostly affected the right-hand side of her body, indicating that she was sitting sideways in her seat at the time of impact. Her ribs and arm were fractured and her right collar bone was dislocated, and she suffered from swelling and bruising to the brain. She was reported to murmur repeatedly, "Oh my God", and after the photographers and other helpers were pushed away by police, "Leave me alone." In June 2007, the Channel 4 documentary Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel claimed that the first person to touch Diana was off-duty physician Frederic Mailliez, who chanced upon the scene. Mailliez reported that Diana had no visible injuries but was in shock. She was reported to have been extremely disturbed and removed an intravenous drip while shouting incoherently. After being sedated and removed from the car at 01:00, she went into cardiac arrest, but her heart started beating again following external cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Diana was moved to the ambulance at 01:18, left the scene at 01:41, and arrived at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital at 02:06.
Fayed was in the rear passenger seat on the left-hand side and was pronounced dead at the scene shortly afterwards. Paul was also pronounced dead at the scene on removal from the wreckage. Both were taken directly to the Institut Médico-Légal, the Paris mortuary. Paul was later found to have a blood alcohol level of 180milligrams per 100millilitres of blood, or 3.6 times the legal limit in France.
Diana's injuries were extensive, and resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful, including internal cardiac massage. Her heart had been displaced to the right side of the chest, which tore the upper left pulmonary vein and the pericardium. Diana died at the hospital at 04:00. Anaesthetist Bruno Riou announced her death at 06:00 at a news conference held at the hospital.
Later that morning, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement visited the hospital. At around 17:00, Diana's former husband then-Prince Charles and her two older sisters Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes arrived in Paris. The group visited the hospital along with French president Jacques Chirac and thanked the doctors for trying to save her life. Charles accompanied Diana's body to the UK later the same day. They departed from Vélizy – Villacoublay Air Base and landed at RAF Northolt, and a bearer party from the Queen's Colour Squadron transferred her coffin to the hearse. The coffin was draped with the royal standard with an ermine border. Her body was finally taken to the Hammersmith and Fulham mortuary in London for a post-mortem examination later that day.
Initial media reports stated that Diana's car had collided with the pillar at, and that the speedometer's needle had jammed at that position. It was later announced that the car's speed upon collision was, about twice as fast as the speed limit of. In 1999, a French investigation concluded that the Mercedes had come into contact with a white Fiat Uno in the tunnel. The driver of the Fiat was never conclusively traced, although many believed that the driver was Le Van Thanh. Thanh was questioned by French detectives in 1997, who ruled him out as a suspect but friends and family members have noted inconsistencies in his story. Thanh has since refused interviews or inquiries from investigators. The specific vehicle was not identified.
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook remarked that, if the crash had been caused in part by being hounded by paparazzi, it would be "doubly tragic". Diana's younger brother, the Earl Spencer, also blamed tabloid media for her death. An 18-month French judicial investigation concluded in 1999 that the crash was caused by Paul, who lost control at high speed while intoxicated. None of the photographers were charged.
Mourning
Members of the public were invited to sign a book of condolence at St James's Palace. A book of condolence was also set up by the British embassy in the US. All 11,000 light bulbs at Harrods department store, owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed, were turned off and not switched on again until after the funeral. Throughout the night, members of the Women's Royal Voluntary Service and the Salvation Army provided support for people queuing along the Mall. More than one million bouquets were left at her London residence, Kensington Palace, while at her family's estate of Althorp the public was asked to stop bringing flowers as the volume of both visitors and flowers in the surrounding roads was said to be causing a threat to public safety.By 10 September, the pile of flowers outside Kensington Gardens was deep in places and the bottom layer had started to compost. The people were quiet, queuing patiently to sign the book and leave their gifts. Fresh flowers, teddy bears, and bottles of champagne were later donated and distributed among the sick, the elderly and children. Cards, personal messages and poems were collected and given to Diana's family.