Thanksgiving Crowds Document The Event On Social Media

If you flew on a commercial airliner over the Thanksgiving holiday, be thankful that you didn't have to depart from Midway Airport in Chicago ... unless you actually were one of the people that was in a TSA security line that was measured at over a mile long Sunday morning.

Gawker reports that several people in the line took to social media to document the event. One Twitter user going by 'TumbleDry' said the line went from the terminal to the city train station and back into the terminal.

A journalist from KOMO in Seattle ... who missed her flight ... said that the full line was about 1.2 miles.

Chicago Aviation Department spokeswoman Karen Pride had a fairly simple explanation for the Chicago Sun Times: "This happens sometimes," she said.

Pride said that the line was at its longest between 0600 and 0800 local time ... when the most people were trying to get home from their holiday visits. Pride said that the backlog was cleared by about 0915.

Passenger Emma Cronin, who showed up an hour early for her 0950 flight to Massachusetts, said that the TSA agents were "helpful and the line moved very fast."

While some obviously missed their flights, Cronin, 21, said she made her flight, and the plane took off on time.

(Image from Twitter courtesy of Sarah Crowder)

FMI: www.cityofchicago.org/aviation