Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales Althorp. Two thousand people attended the ceremony in Westminster Abbey while the British television audience peaked at 32.10 million, one of the United Kingdom's highest viewing figures ever. An estimated 2.5 billion people watched the event worldwide, making it one of the biggest televised events in history. Diana's coffin, draped with the royal standard with an ermine border (i.e. the Other Members' standard), was brought to London from the Salpêtrière Hospital, via Vélizy – Villacoublay Air Base, Paris, by Diana's former husband Charles, Prince of Wales and her two sisters on 31 August 1997. After being taken to a private
Operation London Bridge who started planning her own funeral in 1875, 26 years before she died. When King George VI died in 1952, key government officials were informed with the phrase "Hyde Park Corner". This was done to prevent Buckingham Palace switchboard operators from learning the news too soon. The funeral plan for Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, codenamed Operation Tay Bridge, had been rehearsed for 22 years and, in 1997, was used as the basis for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. In addition to Operation London Bridge, other funeral plans for deaths in the royal family have also used the