Diana's crashed car was a replacement
 

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe....ap/index.html

British government documents say change made at last minute
Tuesday, March 15, 2005 Posted: 4:58 PM EST (2158 GMT)




LONDON (AP) -- The car in the crash that killed Princess Diana in Paris was a last-minute replacement either meant as a media diversion or because the vehicle she was supposed to take failed to start, according to British government documents released Tuesday.

The papers, released by the Cabinet Office under the Freedom of Information Act, detailed correspondence between the government and British officials in France in the days after the August 31, 1997, high-speed crash that killed Diana, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and the driver Henri Paul.

A memo sent to Prime Minister Tony Blair on the day of Diana's death claimed the couple was "immediately subject to media attention" as they arrived at the Ritz Hotel on the evening of August 30 and were surrounded by journalists as they left early the next morning.

"They tried to leave quickly but the first car failed to start," states the document, whose author is not revealed.

A second document sent to then-Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and signed Jay -- believed to be Michael Jay, Britain's ambassador to France at the time -- made the same allegation. "Because apparently their getaway car failed to start they got into another nearby car driven by a Ritz driver," it said.

Another document, sent by Jay to the Foreign Office on September 23, gives a slightly different version of events, saying the switch to another car had been "a last minute plan aimed at diverting awaiting paparazzi."

A French court ruled in 2002 that the crash was an accident caused by Paul, who was drunk and speeding. British royal coroner Michael Burgess opened another investigation last year, however, to determine whether the deadly crash could have been the result of a plot.

Fayed's father, Egyptian-born businessman Mohammed al Fayed, has maintained the car crash was plotted by people who disapproved of Diana's relationship with his son. He also says the circumstances of the crash were covered up.

The document sent by Jay to the Foreign Office also detailed how Mohammed al Fayed arranged for a British pathologist to challenge test results that showed Paul had high levels of alcohol in his system when the car crashed.

The papers, posted on the Cabinet Office Web site, also reveal diplomatic discussions on arrangements to remove the princess' body and start an investigation into the crash.

:distress:

I still get upset over this.

It was August 1997, I was 19 years old, it was a Saturday night when I heard and I was on the computer on MIRC. Someone said she had died and I JUST DIDN'T BELIEVE it.

However she died, she is gone and nothing will bring her back. It's just so...sad.

Me, too...I remember flipping through the channels, relaxing after a long day and being only a month pregnant with our daughter, Lauren, and when I saw it on CNN, I was stunned. I kept thinking that Diana would somehow live, and it took me days to accept that she hadn't. Very sad. I'm glad that Charles is happy and everything now, but I just don't like that Camilla at all. I often wonder how William and Harry feel about all of it; not that they can do anything about it. I'm sure they are just glad that their father is happy. Still...I don't like the woman, lol!

I don't think I'll ever forget watching the funeral on TV and seeing her sons walking behind her coffin. So sad. Althorp, where she is buried, is only about a 10 minute drive from where I live

Pip

Sad indeed
 

Watching those boys walk behind the coffin was absolutely horrible.

I remember Marty came in and woke me up early in the AM (he'd been on the computer as usual) to tell me what had happened, and I was just stunned. And then i was crying because the boys had lost the only person in the world who really just loved them for them, unconditionally. ugh it still makes me so sad that she never got to see them grow up.

-Lis

I remember that day like it was yesterday. That was the last time I was with my grandma before she died and I remember crying with my head lying on my grandma's lap. Then watching the funeral was devastating. I still believe that accident wasn't an accident. :shrug: It still breaks my heart.

i 2 remember this, we were watching movies all nite & inbetween i had turned on msnbc almost as a compulsion, & i saw the news, was so very sad~ i remember also getting up in the middle of the nite 2 watch the funeral live on t.v., was very surreal~ i went 2 see her dresses when they came 2 my city, so beautiful~ i still can't believe it 2 this day, that she is gone, i just remeber her poor boys & that floral arrangement w/ the "mummy" card, so very heartbreaking~

I was at work for a while at saturday evening. I was checking cnn.com and saw the new about Diana being seriously injured. Later that night I heard she has passed away. It was so sad. To this day I still become in shock when I remeber that. And the reaction of people in England, all those thousands of flowers at Kengsinton palace, it was so sad...

I didn't know about him! That was so many years ago. When I was younger, like in 88-89, I was only allowed to listen to Christian radio. Songs from that time mean alot to me and Awesome God was really a great song and a huge hit for him. What a sad thing. I never knew!!