The black Mercedes S-280 driven by Henri Paul and carrying Diana, Princess of Wales, her friend Dodi Fayed and his bodyguard Trevor Rees shouted away from the back entry of the Ritz HOTEL IN PARIS at 12.20am on Sunday August 31 1997.
The car crashed into the 13th pillar of the Alma tunnel, which straddles the dual carriageway running alongside the River Seine, approximately three minutes later.
Had the car not been travelling at 65mph in a 31mph area, had it glanced against the pillar instead of hitting it head-on, or had it bounced off the side wall instead, the shock of the crash would have been less shattering and the occupants of the car might have survived.
As it was, Dodi and Paul were killed outright, while Diana and Rees suffered major injuries.
The princess was extricated from the car, treated at the scene and transported slowly to hospital with her heartbeat erratic and her blood pressure flattening fast.
At the Pitie-Salpetriere hospital, she was operated on by Professor Alain Pavie, the president of the French college of cardiovascular surgeons. He discovered huge internal injuries, including a tear the width of a man's fist in her superior pulmonary vein where it entered the heart.
Pavie said he had never seen a patient survive such an injury. Diana was pronounced dead inside two hours.
Professor Thomas Treasure, the president of the European Association for Thoracic Surgery, queried some details of the treatment, but conceded to the inquest there was a "very low likelihood" that she could have lived.
On examination, the conspiracies crumbled. Several of them originated with and were solely sourced from Fayed himself and, despite all the money he had spent, had no external factual basis at all.
Was Diana pregnant? The only suggestion that she might have been came from Fayed, who said she'd told him in a phone call an hour before the crash - and he had then kept the suggestion to himself until sharing it with the readers of the Daily Express three years later.
There was plenty of evidence that she was not: witnesses attested that she was on the pill and had just had her period.
Other allegations had simple explanations: was Diana's body embalmed at the Paris hospital to disguise her pregnancy? No, because it was beginning to deteriorate in the late summer heat.
Would the British security service really have dispatched an assassin in an ageing Fiat Uno to take on a high-powered limousine?
And how could they have set up such a plot in the few minutes after the plan to drive the couple back to the Fayed apartment instead of staying at THE RITZ was formulated - particularly if the conspiracy involved both British and French security services, the French medical authorities, the police and judiciary in both countries, to say nothing of Tony Blair, the British ambassador, the Queen's private secretary and even the princess's own solicitor.
Fayed was given the opportunity to air all of these allegations, but it was noticeable that his legal team did not pursue them. Practically the only witnesses who endorsed any parts of his claims were his employees or beneficiaries.
Thus Fayed's side originally contended that Paul had not been drinking, when they knew within days of the crash that he had consumed two ricards in THE RITZ bar and had been missing for three hours earlier in the evening after going off duty.
The missing period then came to be ascribed to him being briefed by MI6 about the forthcoming plot.
The black Mercedes S-280 driven by Henri Paul and carrying Diana, Princess of Wales, her friend Dodi Fayed and his bodyguard Trevor Rees shouted away from the back entry of the Ritz HOTEL IN PARIS at 12.20am on Sunday August 31 1997.The car crashed into the 13th pillar of the Alma tunnel, which straddles the dual carriageway running alongside the River Seine, approximately three minutes later.Had the car not been travelling at 65mph in a 31mph area, had it glanced against the pillar instead of hitting it head-on, or had it bounced off the side wall instead, the shock of the crash would have been less shattering and the occupants of the car might have survived.As it was, Dodi and Paul were killed outright, while Diana and Rees suffered major injuries.The princess was extricated from the car, treated at the scene and transported slowly to hospital with her heartbeat erratic and her blood pressure flattening fast.At the Pitie-Salpetriere hospital, she was operated on by Professor Alain Pavie, the president of the French college of cardiovascular surgeons. He discovered huge internal injuries, including a tear the width of a man's fist in her superior pulmonary vein where it entered the heart.Pavie said he had never seen a patient survive such an injury. Diana was pronounced dead inside two hours.Professor Thomas Treasure, the president of the European Association for Thoracic Surgery, queried some details of the treatment, but conceded to the inquest there was a "very low likelihood" that she could have lived.On examination, the conspiracies crumbled. Several of them originated with and were solely sourced from Fayed himself and, despite all the money he had spent, had no external factual basis at all.
Was Diana pregnant? The only suggestion that she might have been came from Fayed, who said she'd told him in a phone call an hour before the crash - and he had then kept the suggestion to himself until sharing it with the readers of the Daily Express three years later.
There was plenty of evidence that she was not: witnesses attested that she was on the pill and had just had her period.
Other allegations had simple explanations: was Diana's body embalmed at the Paris hospital to disguise her pregnancy? No, because it was beginning to deteriorate in the late summer heat.
Would the British security service really have dispatched an assassin in an ageing Fiat Uno to take on a high-powered limousine?
And how could they have set up such a plot in the few minutes after the plan to drive the couple back to the Fayed apartment instead of staying at THE RITZ was formulated - particularly if the conspiracy involved both British and French security services, the French medical authorities, the police and judiciary in both countries, to say nothing of Tony Blair, the British ambassador, the Queen's private secretary and even the princess's own solicitor.
Fayed was given the opportunity to air all of these allegations, but it was noticeable that his legal team did not pursue them. Practically the only witnesses who endorsed any parts of his claims were his employees or beneficiaries.
Thus Fayed's side originally contended that Paul had not been drinking, when they knew within days of the crash that he had consumed two ricards in THE RITZ bar and had been missing for three hours earlier in the evening after going off duty.
The missing period then came to be ascribed to him being briefed by MI6 about the forthcoming plot.
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