Sing-A-Long at Newark Airport

Airports are already a nightmare when they’re running properly. So when a security breach on Sunday forced Newark’s Liberty Airport to shut down an entire terminal and re-screen travelers, causing a human gridlock nightmare, we really felt for those stranded passengers.

Photos and video showed people sitting ten deep on escalators and on the floor with nothing to do but gnaw on the remnants of that Hudson News trail mix and dog-ear their US Weekly, re-reading that story about Elin Nordegren’s revenge.

But while folks in New Jersey had a lot to complain about, they also had something to sing about. Local NBC News New York reports that Josh Wilson, a passenger bound for South Asia, armed with his guitar and a lot of good will, led his fellow passengers in a rendition of The Beatles’ "Hey Jude."

The video of the spontaneous event, meanwhile, has become a YouTube sensation. It’s remarkable for many things: the fact that Wilson got a tired, annoyed bunch of total strangers to smile and sing; that everyone (sort of) knew the words; and that the pull of the song and the crowd made one man (in the white dress shirt) put down his BlackBerry so he could get in a few na-na-nas with his fellow man.

If that isn’t a miracle, we don’t know what is.

Photo courtesy joiseyshowaa via Flickr.