Newcastle United owner ‘held hostage’ at Gatwick Airport brands situation a ‘disgrace’

Newcastle United co-owner Mehrdad Ghodoussi said he was being "held hostage" in Gatwick Airport on Thursday afternoon.

Ghodoussi took to Twitter to vent his frustrations at a situation unfolding at the London airport.

Airports across the UK have been slammed with travellers this week as Brits looked to make the most of the half-term and the Platinum Jubilee weekend to getaway.

Ghodoussi, who became a Newcastle co-owner in October last year, first posted a cryptic tweet targeted at Gatwick Airport.

It said: "@Gatwick_Airport you’re an embarrassment."

Ghodoussi then followed up with a message to flight operator Wizz Air, posted at 12:27 pm from Crawley on Thursday, June 2.

He said: "@WizzAirUK_W9 you are an absolute joke of an airline, god knows why my travel agent decided to book me on one of your flights.

"Over 4hr delay and you still haven’t communicated with the passengers. #gatwickairport I hope you see this and do something about it!"

More than two hours later, the frustrated businessman was still stuck at the airport.

With his previous Tweets beginning to make noise on Twitter, Ghodoussi wrote another message.

Posted at 2:50 pm, the Newcastle co-owner claimed he was being held hostage at the Sussex airport.

He said: "I’m being held hostage in @Gatwick_Airport flight has been cancelled, but they won’t let us out of the airport until some one from the airline escorts us out.

"Haven’t seen anyone from the airline since I checked in this morning.

“@wizzair you’re an absolute joke, a disgrace!!"

About 40 minutes later, Ghodoussi updated that he had now escaped the airport and was on his way to Heathrow to take a different flight.

One Twitter user was quick to question what the big-money Newcastle owner was doing catching a WizzAir flight from Gatwick.

The Tweet read: "Billionaire owner flying Wizz Air? Surely not."

Ghodoussi replied: "Nothing is beneath me and nothing is above me."