The father of an Australian teenager who died from methanol poisoning while on a backpacking holiday has issued a plea to the Laos government to fully investigate his daughter’s death and ensure such incidents don’t happen again.
Bianca Jones, 19, was one of six foreign tourists who died in a suspected mass methanol poisoning in Vang Vieng, a popular backpacker destination in northern Laos.
The deaths of two Australian teenagers, a British woman, an American man and two Danish women – and reports of others taken ill – prompted several Western nations to warn their citizens of the potentially fatal consequences of drinking tainted alcohol in the Southeast Asian country.
Laos, an opaque communist state that tightly controls its media, remained silent on the deaths for over a week before issuing its first statement, but details are still scant, including who else remains in hospital, which nationalities are affected and how widespread the poisonings are.
Mark Jones, Bianca’s father, urged the Laos government “to investigate this to the fullest extent, to make sure this incident doesn’t happen again,” CNN affiliate Nine News reported.
“We can’t have the passing of our daughter … not lead to change to protect others,” he said.
Bianca Jones was enjoying a backpacking trip to Laos with her friend when they became severely ill after a night out in Vang Vieng. The two friends were ultimately transferred to separate hospitals in neighboring Thailand where they spent several days fighting for their lives in critical condition.