Tiffany Gomas, the Dallas marketing executive who stopped an American Airlines flight from taking off during a meltdown in which she doubted the existence of another passenger, is up in the air again on flights for the first time since her tirade on July 2 at DFW International Airport. The news magazine show Inside Edition accompanied Gomas on her first departure from DFW since that very public breakdown. Inside Edition didn't say precisely which airline she took, but it appears to be a United flight. It certainly wasn't American. It banned her.
"I was a brat," Gomas told Inside Edition. "I do want to address that. I was a brat."
Gomas' 15 minutes of fame started when she accused an unidentified passenger of stealing her AirPods. Crew members tried to calm her down as she insisted they stop the plane. She stormed out of her seat toward the front of the cabin, where another passenger filmed her pointing and screaming, “I'm telling you right now, that motherfucker back there is not real and you can sit on this plane and you can fucking die with him or not. I'm not going to.”
Gomas then left the plane just before another passenger told her, "Bye!"
Dallas police released bodycam footage of one of the airport officers who responded to the disturbance. The officer tells Gomas that the passenger she accused of being one of those disappearing people from TV's The Leftovers claims Gomas pushed them, but they also declined to press charges against her.
The incident went viral, racking up millions of views in a matter of days. Gomas says she spent an entire month in her house trying to get away from the noise that her meltdown created. A month later, she issued an apology on her Instagram account.
"First and foremost, I want to take full accountability for my actions," Gomas said. "They were completely unacceptable. Distressed or not, I should've been in control of my emotions and that was not the case."
Gomas told Inside Edition that she tried not to watch the video of her most embarrassing moment.
"I had an altercation, and it was a really really bad moment, not proud of it at all," Gomas told the news magazine. "I feel horrible, horrible for everyone that was on that plane."
That doesn't mean she's completely above profiting off her viral tirade. Gomas posted on her Instagram Thursday that Barstool Sports' Pardon My Take podcast is selling an official ugly holiday sweater (technically, it's a sweatshirt, but we'll give her some leeway since she at least apologized). The sweater has Gomas in her familiar stance pointing with that pouty look of madness on her face. Her point is fixed on a sleepy Santa Claus who's just trying to catch a nap in an airline seat.
The sweater (again, sweatshirt) will cost you $50. It's not known whether any of the proceeds are going to Gomas, but the store's website notes that the "ugly sweater is in collaboration with Tiffany Gomas."
That may sound like a lot for a sweatshirt posing as a sweater, but it's priceless if you've got a Karen in your life who doesn't understand the irony of wearing such a thing — especially if they're on their way to the airport.
