U.S. & World

PARIS (CBS News) ― A glimpse of the twinkling Eiffel Tower, the rarefied glamour of the Ritz Hotel, the brief quayside tunnel that became a symbol of royal death: Jurors in a British inquest on Monday began tracing Princess Diana's last moments before the Paris car crash that killed her 10 years ago.

In a dramatic moment, the jury walked through the Paris traffic tunnel where the princess died in the car crash along with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul on Aug. 31, 1997.

Lengthy investigations on both sides of the Channel have left many questions unanswered and raised suspicions about the deaths.

The 11 jurors assigned to try to find answers to those questions gathered at Paris' Place Vendome on Monday, the start of a two-day visit to Paris, to view the front of the Ritz Hotel. They then viewed the hotel's back entrance, from where Diana and Fayed slipped out and into a Mercedes on their fatal journey.

Jurors traveling in a bus headed to the Place de la Concorde, the landmark plaza on Paris' central east-west axis, in part to get an idea of traffic patterns in the elegant but busy square.

The next stop was the most sensitive: the Pont de l'Alma and the traffic tunnel.

It was at this spot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower, that the Mercedes, pursued by photographers, sped into the underpass and slammed into a concrete pillar.

The juror's bus entered.

"Passing the pillars on the left, including the 13th pillar. Now exiting in a westerly direction," said Lord Justice Scott Baker, who heads the inquest. The bus later passed through a second time in the opposite direction.

In a quiet procession, the jurors walked into the Alma tunnel, where traffic had been cut off. Baker asked them to look at the pillars and at the slope of the tunnel and the angle of the turn at the approach.

The group stopped for several minutes, looking silently at the 13th pillar.

"Members of the jury, it may be that what you're seeing is not entirely natural because of the large number of police and photographers that are present," Baker said outside the tunnel. "You may get a better view tonight."

Jurors were to make a third visit to the tunnel in the evening to more closely replicate the conditions of the midnight crash, and visit the Pitie Salpetiere Hospital where Diana died.

Even a decade later, mystery and global curiosity accompanied this inquiry, with court officials keeping details of the visit under wraps until the last moment amid fears of swarming photographers similar to those who pursued the couple in their final moments.

The inquest is to determine when, where and how they died. It opened Oct. 2 and was expected to last no more than six months.

Photographers filled Place Vendome on Monday, and had a moment of luck while jurors were waiting for a flat tire on their bus to be fixed: Victoria Beckham emerged from the Ritz.

Diana, 36, and Fayed, 42, were heading from the Ritz Hotel to Fayed's private Paris home near the Arc de Triomphe when they were killed in the crash. Dodi Fayed's father, Egyptian-born billionaire Mohamed al Fayed, has said it was their engagement night.

Whether Diana and Fayed planned to announce their engagement the next day — and whether she was pregnant with Fayed's child — are questions for the jury.

Mohamed al Fayed alleges the couple was murdered in a plot directed by Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband, to keep a Muslim out of the royal circle.

A French investigation concluded that the car was traveling at an excessive speed and the driver had a blood alcohol level more than three times the legal limit. Tests showed the presence of two prescription drugs, including the antidepressant Prozac, in his system.

A British investigation left it to the coroner's inquest to assign blame. Under British law, inquests are held when someone dies unexpectedly, violently or of unknown causes.

Neither the French nor British investigations have blamed paparazzi pursuing the speeding car for the crash. Some British press reports, however, have seized on Ritz security camera frames showing the driver waving in the direction of photographer Jacques Langevin, who was at the back of the hotel with several colleagues. The reports have concluded that Paul may have tipped off photographers about the couple's plan to leave the hotel from its service entrance.

The wave, captured on one of the hotel's 43 security cameras, was among dozens shown to the jury in London.

But Langevin told The Associated Press this weekend that he did not know Paul and he denied there was any elaborate ruse. "There was no connivance," he said.

Langevin said he had been at the back of the hotel because of professional experience. A colleague was posted at the front entrance.

"Henri Paul could have taken them out by the garage .... It's a lottery," he said.

Baker released a batch of photographs, including two unpublished photos taken by Langevin, that may have been the last to capture the princess before the crash. One photo, taken as the car left the Ritz, shows only Diana's hair as she turns to peer out the back window.

Langevin called the release of the photos a betrayal of trust and reversed his decision to testify by video link at the end of the month, reports CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar. He said he cannot be compelled to testify at the inquest.

When the jury returns to London later this week, it will hear from the first French witnesses via a video link with the Court of Appeal in Paris.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)