On February 17, 2012, Prince Friso was buried in an avalanche in Lech, Austria while skiing with longtime friend and Lech local, Florian Moosbrugger. The two had decided to ski off-piste despite high avalanche danger. Austrian prosecutors had been examining whether Mr. Moosbrugger, who survived the avalanche by deploying an avalanche airbag, should be brought up on negligence charges for taking the Prince out skiing that morning. Prosecutors have since decided that the Prince was not co-erced into skiing that day, and as an experienced skier knew the risks involved.
The Prince had been buried for 25 minutes and suffered significant neurological damage due to oxygen shortage. Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau, the second son of Queen Beatrix and the late Prince Claus of the Netherlands, remains in a coma in a London hospital.