Paulwas doing 85mph in a 30mph limit. Drunk at the wheel, he lost control...
Di an a’ s driver called out to the photographers ,‘ Don’ t try to follow, you’ ll never catch us !’
photographers reckon it’s a trick so they head to the hotel’s back exit on the Rue Cambon. Sunday, August 31, 12.06am DODI and Diana emerge from their room. Dodi reassures wingfield that his escape plan has been approved by his father.
wingfield presses his boss for two cars to make the trip — Dodi rejects that idea, but does agree to let Rees-Jones come with him as security.
The couple seem more relaxed now. ‘so it’s straight back, then. Not to a nightclub?’ wingfield teases Diana. ‘No, straight back!’ she laughs. wingfield tries to persuade ReesJones that he himself should go with Dodi, but Rees- Jones says: ‘I’m Dodi’s guy, so I’ll go with him. I’ll see you in ten minutes.’
‘I’ll beat you back!’ wingfield jokes in reply. 12.14am DIaNa and Dodi are inside the rear entrance of the Ritz waiting for the car. Dodi has his arm around Diana’s waist. Rees- Jones looks out into the street. he spots a small white car and a scooter.
The plan hasn’t worked. some of the paparazzi have guessed what’s happening. 12.19am The car finally arrives. It’s a Mercedes s280 bought secondhand three years ago by the chauffeur company used by the Ritz. head down, and with a hand covering her face, Diana follows Rees- Jones out and into the car with Dodi behind her.
henri Paul calls out to the photographers, ‘Don’t try to follow, you will never catch us!’ and gets into the driver’s seat. Paul has enough alcohol in his bloodstream to be more than twice over the legal limit. french photographer Jacques langevin is directly in front of the Mercedes.
Rees- Jones, in the front, pulls down the sun visor to spoil his shot. langevin gets a picture of the back of Diana’s head as she looks out of the rear of the car.
The Mercedes pulls away at speed. The journey time is about six minutes. ‘There’s a couple of photographers at the back, but not many,’ Rees- Jones says. 12.20am The quickest route to Dodi’s apartment is straight along the Champs-Élysées, but not on a busy saturday night, so henri Paul heads for a fast expressway along the River seine.
french photographer Romuald Rat, riding pillion, spots the car at a set of lights, but before he can get a picture, the car pulls away and turns onto the embankment road. some paparazzi have given up the chase, but about five scooters are still in hot pursuit.
for a few seconds, the Mercedes is plunged into the darkness of the Pont alexandre III tunnel. when it emerges, Paul can see the road bend to the left and the opening of the next tunnel under Place de l’alma.
his car is doing about 85mph in a 30mph zone. Motorist Thierry hackett sees the Mercedes overtake him at high speed, followed by men on motorbikes. To his alarm, the car is swerving. No one in the car is wearing a seat-belt. 12.23am The Mercedes enters the Pont de l’alma Tunnel, still travelling at around 85mph and swerving from side to side. Paul, drunk at the wheel, is losing control.
suddenly he sees a white fiat uno in the right-hand lane and steers to avoid it but hits the fiat’s left-hand rear light with his right wing.
The Mercedes drives headlong into the tunnel’s 13th pillar. People walking above hear what sounds like a bomb going off.
The car rebounds and crashes against the wall on the other side, and comes to a stop facing the way it came. The front of the Mercedes is crushed and its horn is blaring. smoke is coming from what’s left of the engine.
Romuald Rat jumps off his bike and heads back towards the smashed car, taking pictures as he runs. Rat reckons that everyone inside must be dead and for a few seconds hangs back, then opens the rear door.
Inside, Diana is still alive, slumped on the floor with her back to the front seat. a floor mat is lying on top of her. her pearl bracelet is scattered on the back seat and floor.
Dodi and henri Paul are dead. Rees- Jones in the front seat is alive, but desperately injured. 12.24am DRIvINg on the opposite side of the tunnel, Dr frederic Mailliez is returning from a birthday party. Through the engine smoke he spots the crash and pulls over. Mailliez runs to the Mercedes, sees the dead and injured and starts to treat the blonde woman in the back of the car. he has no idea who she is. Cameras are still flashing around him.
The woman is finding it hard to breathe, so Mailliez runs back to his car to call for two ambulances and then gets a first aid kit out of the boot. when Mailliez returns to the Mercedes, he lifts Diana’s head to put an oxygen mask on her, but she cries out, saying how much she hurts. The doctor realises she’s British.
The woman’s pulse is weak but, other than a cut on her forehead, he can see no injuries. 12.30am sOMe tourists at the entrance to the tunnel are shouting at two policemen who have just arrived.
‘There’s been a crash, get down there, it’s in the tunnel, hurry up!’ Officer sebastien Dorzee tells his partner to radio for help then runs down towards the crumpled Mercedes. Mailliez steps back and Dorzee looks in, recognising Diana instantly.
Diana sees Dodi’s body and says: ‘My god.’
Ten firefighters arrive. Two reach into the car and carefully lift Dodi out, place him on the road and start cardiac massage. Others try to extricate ReesJones, but the car is so compressed it’s impossible.
They manage to move his head to allow him to breathe easier and to get a cervical collar on him. One fireman covers Diana with an aluminium blanket. he checks her breathing and it’s normal.
‘My god, what’s happened?’ Diana mutters. wingfield, passing over the Pont de l’alma Tunnel on his way to Dodi’s apartment, sees flashing lights in the tunnel. he calls the apartment to ask if the couple have arrived. he’s told they’re not there yet.
‘ They’ve probably taken a detour to avoid the accident,’ wingfield says.
12.35am More policemen arrive and some paparazzi decide to flee. 12.40am Two doctors from the Paris Ambulance Unit (SAMU) arrive and take charge. Dr Jean-Marc Martino can see that Diana’s right arm is dislocated. He gives the Princess an intravenous drip. Now the medics have arrived, Mailliez leaves. only when he turns on the TV the following morning will he realise the identity of the woman he’d treated. 12.45am A BMw motorbike roars into the tunnel. riding pillion behind her husband and clad in black leather is Maud Coujard, the deputy public prosecutor, who’s been summoned by the police.
She immediately orders officers to grab the remaining photographers and their cameras, so they can be taken for questioning. 12.54am THe first news of the accident is flashed around the world by the Press Association: ‘ Diana, Princess of wales, was badly injured in a car crash in which another person is reported to have died in Paris shortly after midnight, according to French news agency reports.’ 1am THe two doctors from SAMU are carefully lifting Diana from between the seats, out of the car and onto a trolley. Her heart suddenly stops beating. The doctors start urgent Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPr).
After half an hour of cardiac massage on Dodi, the firefighters admit defeat. His body is covered in a blue plastic sheet. TV crews have now arrived. They capture the scene as six photographers and one of their drivers are taken away in a police van. 1.10pm/12.10pm (UK time) AT MoHAMeD Al Fayed’s Surrey home, the phone is ringing. It is his chief of security, Paul HandleyGreaves. He tells his boss Dodi is dead and Diana may be dying.
At Kensington Palace, Diana’s butler Paul Burrell is frantically ringing her mobile. It diverts to an answering service. He’d been woken by a call from an American friend who’d seen reports of the crash on CNN.
Colin Tebbutt, Diana’s chauffeur, had gone to bed early as he is due to collect her from Battersea heliport later this morning. His phone rings. It’s a colleague from Kensington Palace, who says: ‘Just sit on the edge of the bed and be prepared.’ 1.18pm/12.18pm (UK time) AFTer 18 minutes of CPr, Diana’s heart is beating more regularly so she’s put inside an ambulance and onto a respirator. Now able to examine Diana more carefully, Dr Martino spots a chest wound on her right side. He’s concerned she may be bleeding internally.
BBC royal Correspondent Jennie Bond stands barefoot in her nightdress in her kitchen ringing a taxi firm. Her newsroom has told her of the accident and that she must get to London.
Jennie is 250 miles away in Devon and the taxi firm is not pleased. ‘You want to go all the way to London at this hour? No, we couldn’t possibly do that . . .’
Jennie rifles through the Yellow Pages for another taxi company. 1.30pm/12.30pm (UK time) Now the bodies have been removed from the car, the police recover Diana’s personal effects — the pearl bracelet, a gold watch and gold ring, both with white stones, and her Versace shoes. A gold earring lies undiscovered under the dashboard.
The first pictures of the crash are running on the TV news. BBC Five Live is interviewing an eyewitness. He claims he can see Princess Diana safe and well and walking away from the car. 1.41am THe ambulance carrying Diana moves off in the direction of the Pitié- Salpêtrière Hospital four miles away. It’s not the closest, but it is the best equipped. The ambulance is moving very slowly — the doctors are concerned that any jolt may trigger a cardiac arrest. All the roads have been cleared and the Pitié-Salpêtrière has been alerted.
At Diana’s office in Kensington Palace, her staff are making calls to book flights to Paris for Paul Burrell and driver Colin Tebbutt. 1.45pm/12.45pm (UK time) THe British Ambassador in Paris, Sir Michael Jay, is on the phone to the embassy’s duty officer, who is telling him that Princess Diana has been injured in a car accident. Jay immediately calls the Queen’s deputy private secretary, Sir robin Janvrin, who is with the royal Family at Balmoral. 2am/1am (UK time) THe ambulance carrying Diana is forced to stop within yards of the hospital. The Princess’s blood pressure has dropped dramatically. The doctors give her dopamine to stabilise her. The ambulance moves off again, slowly. A journey that normally lasts ten minutes has taken 20.
The newly- elected Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and his wife Cherie are fast asleep in their constituency home in Sedgefield, County Durham.
He wakes up with a start. A policeman is standing by his bed. The officer apologises for coming into his bedroom, but he hadn’t heard the doorbell.
He tells Blair that Princess Diana has been injured in a car crash and that he needs to call Sir Michael Jay in Paris.
The Queen’s deputy private secretary, Sir robin Janvrin, is breaking the news over the phone to Prince Charles from his quarters at Balmoral. ‘Sir, there’s been a serious accident in Paris. Dodi is dead and the Princess of wales has been injured.’
Stunned, Charles replies: ‘ Is Diana oK?’
Janvrin says: ‘we believe so, Sir. we really do not know.’ 2.05am AS THe ambulance doors are opened, two hospital stretcherbearers take the trolley, helped by the Minister of the Interior, Jean-Pierre Chevènement, and his assistant, Sami Nair.
Nair looks down at Diana. She has an oxygen mask over her mouth and her eyes are swollen. Both men are struck by how young and lovely she looks. ‘She’s beautiful, isn’t she? She’s beautiful,’ Chevènement says. 2.10am INSIDe the A&e department, X- rays have revealed bleeding inside the Princess’s chest cavity, compressing her heart and right lung. The blood is drained and she’s given a transfusion. Then Diana’s heart stops once more. 2.15am/1.15am (UK time) PrINCe Charles is on the phone to his spokesman, Mark Bolland, in London. He wants to know the latest news on Diana’s condition. ‘I always thought that Diana would come back to me, needing to be cared for,’ the Prince says.
Mohamed Al Fayed is being driven to Gatwick airport where his private helicopter will take him to Paris to collect Dodi’s body. Islamic law dictates he must be buried as soon as possible. 2.30am SUrGeoNS have opened Diana’s chest and discovered that the force of the crash has displaced her heart from left to right, causing a tear in the upper left pulmonary vein. They stitch the tear to stop internal bleeding. 2.47am/1.47am (UK time) BBC1 is showing the French gangster film Borsalino. A poignant funeral scene is interrupted by a news flash.
Martyn Lewis, who was in bed at home in Kensington just half an hour before, announces to the viewers that Diana has been injured in a car crash in a tunnel in Paris.
A passenger in the car has been killed and that passenger may be Dodi Al Fayed.
Lewis stresses that these reports are unconfirmed. 2.50am/1.50am (UK time) THe phone rings in Gill reesJones’s oswestry house. It’s Trevor’s estranged wife, Sue.
‘I’ve just heard it on the radio. There’s been a crash involving Dodi and Diana. I’m sure everything’s all right, but I thought you ought to know . . .’
Gill and ernie, Trevor’s stepfather, turn on the TV. The reporters say Dodi and the driver have been killed — but there is no news of Diana or ‘ an unnamed bodyguard’.
Then, to their horror, there’s a report that the bodyguard has died. ernie calls Al Fayed’s HQ. ‘Is it true?’ he asks. ‘ No, don’t believe it. Trevor’s still alive,’ says the man on the operations desk. 3am/2am (UK time) oNe hundred miles to the north, in a bungalow on the Scottish isle of Seil, Diana’s mother Frances Shand Kydd is woken by the phone ringing. She hopes that it’s the person who usually calls in the small hours — Diana.
They haven’t spoken since Frances gave an interview to Hello! magazine in May, when she talked about her daughter’s bulimia and divorce and that it was ‘absolutely wonderful’ Diana had been stripped of her HrH title. Frances’s letters of apology have been returned unopened.
It’s not Diana on the phone but a friend, who says: ‘I had to wake you because there’s a newsflash on Sky News. Diana’s been hurt in a crash in Paris.’
Frances turns on the TV. She watches library footage of her daughter played on the screen. Frances’s hands are shaking. 3.15am/2.15pm (UK time) THe surgeons at Pitié-Salpêtrière are fighting to keep Diana alive by using adrenaline, heart massages by hand and defibrillations. Nothing is working.
In a nearby operating theatre, doctors are giving rees- Jones a tracheotomy. out in the corridors are armed men from the British and French Secret Services.
Frances Shand Kydd is packing in case she has to visit Diana in hospital. She’d tried to call her other daughters, Sarah and Jane, but their lines are engaged.
Frances did get through to her son, Charles, in South Africa, who’d just been told the news by his estate manager at Althorp. 3.50am THe wrecked Mercedes is being taken away on a truck. Police are collecting fragments of red glass and sealing them in bags. They will later be found to have come from the white Fiat’s brake light. 4am IN THe hospital operating theatre, Diana, Princess of wales is pronounced dead. Father Yves-Marie Clochard-Bossuet, a roman Catholic priest, performs the last rites using his thumb to anoint her forehead and her palms with holy oil.
He sits with Diana, praying for her soul and for her two sons. He will stay there for four hours so the Princess won’t be alone.
The medical team tells Minister of the Interior Jean- Pierre Chevènement that Diana has died. The British ambassador, Sir Michael Jay, weeps at the news. 4.15am/3.15am (UK time) SIr Michael calls Balmoral to tell the royal Family. Additional reporting: NIGEL BUNYAN
JONATHAN MAYO is the author of TITANIC: MINUTE BY MINUTE and D-DAY: MINUTE BY MINUTE, (Short Books, both £8.99). To order copies for £7.19 (valid to August 26, 2017), visit mailbookshop. co.uk or call 0844 571 0640. P&P is free on orders over £15.