Diana’s Last Moments: French Medic Recalls ‘Tragic Night’

French Emergency Doctor Frederic Maillez, who was first to arrive at the scene of the crash that killed Britain's Diana, Princess of Wales, speaks to The Associated Press, next to the Pont de l'Alma tunnel, in Paris, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. (AP)
French Emergency Doctor Frederic Maillez, who was first to arrive at the scene of the crash that killed Britain's Diana, Princess of Wales, speaks to The Associated Press, next to the Pont de l'Alma tunnel, in Paris, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. (AP)
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Diana’s Last Moments: French Medic Recalls ‘Tragic Night’

French Emergency Doctor Frederic Maillez, who was first to arrive at the scene of the crash that killed Britain's Diana, Princess of Wales, speaks to The Associated Press, next to the Pont de l'Alma tunnel, in Paris, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. (AP)
French Emergency Doctor Frederic Maillez, who was first to arrive at the scene of the crash that killed Britain's Diana, Princess of Wales, speaks to The Associated Press, next to the Pont de l'Alma tunnel, in Paris, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. (AP)

The woman was crumpled on the floor of a mangled Mercedes, unconscious and struggling to breathe. The French doctor had no idea who she was, and focused on trying to save her.

Twenty-five years later, Frederic Mailliez is still marked by what happened in the Alma Tunnel in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997 — and the realization that he was one of the last people to see Princess Diana alive.

“I realize my name will always be attached to this tragic night,” Mailliez, who was on his way home from a party when he came across the car crash, told The Associated Press. “I feel a little bit responsible for her last moments.”

As Britain and Diana’s admirers worldwide mark a quarter-century since her death, Mailliez recounted the aftermath of the crash.

That night, Mailliez was driving into the tunnel when he spotted a smoking Mercedes nearly split in two.

“I walked toward the wreckage. I opened the door, and I looked inside,” he said.

What he saw: “Four people, two of them were apparently dead, no reaction, no breathing, and the two others, on the right side, were living but in severe condition. The front passenger was screaming, he was breathing. He could wait a few minutes. And the female passenger, the young lady, was on her knees on the floor of the Mercedes, she had her head down. She had difficulty breathing. She needed quick assistance.”

He ran to his car to call emergency services and grab a respiratory bag.

“She was unconscious,” he said. “Thanks to my respiratory bag (...) she regained a little bit more energy, but she couldn’t say anything.”

The doctor would later find out the news — along with the rest of the world — that the woman he treated was Diana, Britain’s national treasure adored by millions.

“I know it’s surprising, but I didn’t recognize Princess Diana,” he said. “I was in the car on the rear seat giving assistance. I realized she was very beautiful, but my attention was so focused on what I had to do to save her life, I didn’t have time to think, who was this woman.”

“Someone behind me told me the victims spoke English, so I began to speak English, saying I was a doctor and I called the ambulance,” he said. “I tried to comfort her.”

As he worked, he noticed the flash of camera bulbs, of paparazzi gathered to document the scene. A British inquest found Diana’s chauffeur, Henri Paul, was drunk and driving at a high speed to elude pursuing photographers.

Mailliez said he had “no reproach” toward the photographers’ actions after the crash. “They didn’t hamper me having access to the victims. ... I didn’t ask them for help, but they didn’t interfere with my job.”

Firefighters quickly came, and Diana was taken to a Paris hospital, where she died a few hours later. Her companion Dodi Fayed and the driver also died.

“It was a massive shock to learn that she was Princess Diana, and that she died,” Mailliez said. Then self-doubt set in. “Did I do everything I could to save her? Did I do correctly my job?” he asked himself. “I checked with my medical professors and I checked with police investigators,” he said, and they agreed he did all he could.

The anniversary is stirring up those memories again, but they also come back “each time I drive through the Alma Tunnel,” he said.

As Mailliez spoke, standing atop the tunnel, cars rushed in and out past the pillar where she crashed, now bearing a stencil drawing of Diana’s face.

The Flame of Liberty monument nearby has become a memorial site attracting Diana fans of all generations and nationalities. She has become a timeless figure of emancipation and a fashion icon even for those born after her death.

Irinia Ouahvi, a 16-year-old Parisian visiting the flame, said she knows Diana through TikTok videos and through her mother.

“Even with her style she was a feminist. She challenged royal etiquette, wearing cyclist shorts and casual pants,” Ouahvi said.

Francine Rose, a Dutch 16-year-old who stopped by Diana’s memorial while on a biking trip in Paris, discovered her story thanks to “The Princess,” a recent film starring Kristen Stewart.

“She is an inspiration because she was evolving in the strict household, the royal family, and just wanted to be free,” Rose said.



Computer Simulations Show Nightmare Atlantic Current Shutdown Less Likely This Century

The sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean as a bird flies in Lido Beach, New York, US, February 26, 2025. (Reuters)
The sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean as a bird flies in Lido Beach, New York, US, February 26, 2025. (Reuters)
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Computer Simulations Show Nightmare Atlantic Current Shutdown Less Likely This Century

The sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean as a bird flies in Lido Beach, New York, US, February 26, 2025. (Reuters)
The sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean as a bird flies in Lido Beach, New York, US, February 26, 2025. (Reuters)

The nightmare scenario of Atlantic Ocean currents collapsing, with weather running amok and putting Europe in a deep freeze, looks unlikely this century, a new study concludes.

In recent years, studies have raised the alarm about the slowing and potential abrupt shutdown of the Atlantic end of the ocean conveyor belt system. It transports rising warm water north and sinking cool water south and is a key factor in global weather systems.

A possible climate change-triggered shutdown of what's called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or AMOC could play havoc with global rain patterns, dramatically cool Europe while warming the rest of the world and goose sea levels on America's East Coast, scientists predict.

It's the scenario behind the 2004 fictionalized disaster movie “The Day After Tomorrow,” which portrays a world where climate change sparks massive storms, flooding and an ice age.

Scientists at the United Kingdom's Met Office and the University of Exeter used simulations from 34 different computer models of extreme climate change scenarios to see if the AMOC would collapse this century, according to a study in Wednesday's journal Nature. No simulation showed a total shutdown before 2100, said lead author Jonathan Baker, an oceanographer at the Met Office.

It could happen later, though, he said. The currents have collapsed in the distant past.

Still, the computer simulations should be “reassuring" to people, Baker said.

“But this is no greenlight for complacency,” Baker warned. “The AMOC is very likely to weaken this century and that brings its own major climate impacts.”

The Atlantic current flows because warm water cools as it reaches the Arctic, forming sea ice. That leaves salt behind, causing the remaining water to become more dense, sinking and pulled southward. But as climate change warms the world and more fresh water flows into the Arctic from the melting Greenland ice sheet, the Arctic engine behind the ocean conveyor belt slows down. Previous studies predict it stopping altogether with one of them saying it could happen within a few decades.

But Baker said the computer models and basic physics predict that a second motor kicks in along the Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica. The winds there pull the water back up to the surface, called upwelling, where it warms, Baker said. It's not as strong, but it will likely keep the current system alive, but weakened, through the year 2100, he said.

Baker's focus on the pulling up of water from the deep instead of just concentrating on the sinking is new and makes sense, providing a counterpoint to the studies saying collapse is imminent, said Oregon State University climate scientist Andreas Schmittner, who wasn't part of the research.

Those Southern Ocean winds pulling the deep water up act “like a powerful pump keeps the AMOC running even in the extreme climate change scenarios,” Baker said.

As the AMOC weakens, a weak Pacific version of it will likely develop to compensate a bit, the computer models predicted.

If the AMOC weakens but not fully collapses, many of the same impacts — including crop losses and changes in fish stock — likely will still happen, but not the big headline one of Europe going into a deep freeze, Baker said.

Scientists measure the AMOC strength in a unit called Sverdrups. The AMOC is now around 17 Sverdrups, down two from about 2004 with a trend of about 0.8 decline per decade, scientists said.

One of the debates in the scientific world is the definition of an AMOC shutdown. Baker uses zero, but other scientists who have been warning about the shutdown implications, use about 5 Sverdrups. Three of Baker's 34 computer models went below 5 Sverdrups, but not to zero.

That's why Levke Caesar and Stefan Rahmstorf, physicists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research and authors of an alarming 2018 study about potential shutdown, said this new work doesn't contradict theirs. It's more a matter of definitions.

“An AMOC collapse does not have to mean 0 (Sverdrups) overturning and even if you would want to follow that definition one has to say that such a strong AMOC weakening comes with a lot (of) impacts,” Caesar wrote in an email. “The models show a severe AMOC weakening that would come with severe consequences.”