The Death of a Princess--Diana Dies but Still Lives in our Hearts

Flowers for Princess Diana's Funeral (Photo credit: Maxwell Hamilton)

The 31 August 1997 Diana died after having suffered an accident at high speed in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris along with Dodi Al-Fayed and their driver Henri Paul . Blood analysis shows that Henri Paul was illegally intoxicated while he ran. Tests confirmed that the original blood samples from autopsy was Henri Paul, and that he had three times the French drink-border in the blood. Conspiracy theorists claimed that Paul's blood samples had been swapped with blood from someone else - who was drunk - and claimed that the driver was drunk the night Diana died. Their black 1994 model Mercedes-Benz S280 sedan (registration number 688 LTV 75) crashed into the thirteenth pillar of the tunnel. This two-field tunnel was built without barriers between the pillars, so a slight change in direction could easily result in a front-to-front collision with tunnelpilaren.

Neither the driver nor any of the three passengers used seat belt.  Fayed's bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones sat in the car's most vulnerable position, and was still the only survivor of the accident. Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed died instantly, and Diana - without a seat belt in the back seat - slid forward during the impact. She was brutally thrown around in the back seat, then she fell under the car seat in front, which ended in catastrophic heart damage and subsequent internal bleeding . She was later, after considerable delay, transported by ambulance to Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière , but she had two cardiac arrests along the way. 

In spite of prolonged treatment with CPR , including cardiac massage, she died at. 04.00 local time. Her funeral, which was broadcast was added on 6 September 1997 , and seen by approx. 2.5 billion people worldwide. 

Diana's death has been a widely discussed topic and has several related car accident to various conspiracy theories . Among the most skeptical is Mohamed Al-Fayed , father of Dodi, who died in the accident. Prins Philip , her father in law , has repeatedly been mentioned as a possible culprit.

 The same has her former husband, which led to hearings by the Metropolitan Police in 2005. Other theories claim that the Secret Intelligence Service or the CIA was involved. Mossad has been suspected, and this theory has been supported on U.S. television by the intelligence specialist and lawyer Michael Shrimpton. One particularly strange assertion, which has been shown on the internet, claims that Diana was beaten to death in the back of the ambulance, by assassins disguised as paramedics. These were all denied by French brunette researchers and British officials, who claimed that the driver, Henri Paul , was drunk by both alcohol and drugs , although CCTV images of Paul leaving the Ritz hotel with Diana and Dodi Fayed did not seem to show a man in full or reduced state. Nevertheless, in 2004 the government ordered an independent investigation led by Baron John Stevens, a former chief of the Metropolitan Police , and he pointed out that the case was "far more complex than any of us thought" and referred to the "new legal evidence" and witnesses.  The French authorities have also decided to gjentoppta case.  Lord Stevens investigation, Operation Paget , was published on 14 December 2006 , and rejected all accusations of conspiracy by claiming that they had no basis in truth.

Paparazzi arrived Alma, accident, at different times. Serge Arnal, Christian Martinez, Romuald Rat and Stéphane Darmon is said to have arrived first, quickly followed by Serge Benhamou. Recording phone calls have been issued by telephony operators Itineris and SFR, and these supports Serge Arnal's claim that he tried to call the central station. Seized images from the cameras to Romuald Rat, Christian Martinez and Serge Arnal shows that they took pictures of the vehicle and / or passengers almost immediately after their arrival at the scene of an accident - there was no visible ambulances near the car in the pictures.

The 13 July 2006 published the Italian magazine Chi pictures showing Diana in her "last moments". The pictures were taken a few minutes after the accident, and shows Diana slumped in the back seat while paramedics try to attach an oxygen mask over her face. The pictures were also published in other Italian and Spanish magazines and newspapers.

The editor of Chi defended his decision by saying that he published the pictures "for the simple reason that they have not been seen before," and felt that the pictures did not show disrespect to the memory of Diana. British media refused to officially publish the photos, with the exception of the tabloid newspaper The Sun , who posted the picture with censored head portion.

Recent controversies emerged around these pictures when it was revealed that the British television channel Channel 4 planned to display them in a documentary that was broadcast in June 2007. 

1 July 2007 it held a concert of her two sons to celebrate the 46-year old since her birth, called the Concert for Diana . The concert was held at Wembley Stadium and had many well-known popular artists on the program.

Documentary drama Diana: Last Days of a Princess from 2007 describes the last two months of her life in detail.

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