Dodo, as I admitted, I don't know exactly why the ex CP spent the night in the lockup, though from his character I surmise that he probably deserved it.
As for the riot, I was the guy in the cockpit, so know exactly how it unfolded.
The runway and taxiway were blocked by protesters behaving fairly peacefully. They wanted to hold the President on the island pending questions about money he had allegedly spirited away.
When he arrived and was rushed up the aircraft steps direct from his motorcade, the crowd got a little agitated but were in the main still reasonably well behaved.
Via the PA I spoke to the passengers and told them that we would not be starting until the crowd dispersed. One of the President's men came forward and said words to the effect of "just get going, they will move out of the way and if they don't, mow them down"'. I agreed to start the engines and did so, but when the crowd did not show any signs of moving, shut down again, went to the foot of the steps and spoke to the ringleader of the protest. Meantime there was some biffo going on - the funniest sight was a large lady who had taken to a cop and was getting the better of it. Also a couple of cops laying into each other, presumably because one had hit a relative of the other.
After we disembarked the pax, the President insisted on staying aboard, so was left with one volunteer Flight Attendant and his usual contingent of goons. The APU was shut down to heat things up, in the hope that the discomfort would move the President. My excuse being that we were fuel critical. It was not quite at that stage, but after a few hours more of APU usage would have been, because the locals had sabotaged the fuel installation and we could not uplift any more.
A couple of young guys then rode a bike along the strip to where there were no people and threw a Molotov cocktail, which proved a point that I had made that until the strip was not only clear of people, but the perimeter fence also, we would not be departing. Also, once daylight ended, we would not be departing as we would be unable to see who or what was along the perimeter. I think that's about when I got sacked for the first time.
It was eventually resolved when the Chief of Police agreed to release protesters who had been locked up during the melee' and yet again the President had his way.
He's just lucky that Nauruans are generally gentle-natured. In some places the crowd would have stormed the aircraft and lynched him.
Last edited by Mach E Avelli; 5th Aug 2014 at 18:51.