About

"That Motherfucker Is Not Real" Plane Woman, also known as the Plane Lady, is a viral public freakout video of a woman frightenedly ranting in a plane prior to its takeoff that another person on the plane was "not real" and that she wanted to get off. The video rapidly spread online in early July 2023 and drew comparisons to the film Final Destination, as well as inspiring jokes about whether the woman was correct. The incident also spawned the "TMFINR" catchphrase in the following days. In subsequent weeks, the identity of the woman became a prominent topic online as people searched for her, with her later being identified as a Texas woman named Tiffany Gomas in early August 2023.

Origin

On July 3rd, 2023, TikToker @knuckelslawncare^[1] posted a video of a visibly frightened female passenger on an American Airlines flight saying that she wanted to get off the plane because she saw a person on the plane who she believed wasn't real. The video gained over 14 million views and 1.2 million likes in three days on the platform (original deleted, re-upload shown below). Reports^[4] suggest the video was originally posted by user @texasarkansan, though a link to that video has since been deleted.

Spread

The same day, July 3rd, 2023, the TikTok was then reposted to Twitter by user bornakang,^[2] gaining over 19 million views and helping it spread on that platform.

Also later that day, comedian Carrot Top revealed that he was on the flight and shared some context on his Instagram^[18] regarding the events (since deleted). According to him, the outburst started after the woman loudly complained about losing one of her earbuds.

On July 3rd, TikToker m.leern shared a video in which she claimed to be another passenger on the plane and alleged the woman had been drinking before the flight and accused a Black passenger next to her of stealing her earbud (shown below). The video received over 51,000 views in three days.

On July 5th, 2023, Complex^[3] then reported that the woman left the airport without incident after being escorted off the plane.

On July 6th, Twitter user @DomLucre posted a video claiming to have identified a man in a green hoodie as the person the woman was referring to, accumulating over 33,000 likes in roughly 16 hours (shown below).

🔥🚨BREAKING: Here is a new video of the person in the green hoodie from “that MF is not real video” on that plane. pic.twitter.com/MWGypla2Gr

— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) July 6, 2023

In response, TikToker @that_mel_delrey then posted a TikTok disproving it, noting that the man in the video was from a video first posted in 2022 (seen below).

Speculation Over Woman's Identity

In the weeks following the incident, many posters and news outlets online wondered about the identity of the woman involved and if she herself was real or not. Some reverse-searched her image from the plane video and initially identified her as a Texas woman named Tiffany Gomas — though unconfirmed

For example, in response to a July 13th, 2023, tweet that received over 56,000 likes in two weeks (seen below left) from Fox News journalist Kassy Dillon^[7] asking who the woman was, Twitter user @minombrejonas posted a screenshot of a Google Images search result for "Tiffany Gomas" (seen below, right), earning almost 100 likes in a similar timeframe.^[8]

The earliest references on X to Gomas being identified as the plane woman date back to July 9th, however, in tweets that were not widely liked or seen by user @_RejeCtt (seen below, left).^[9] People online also speculated that the woman's name was Jenna Wilson, largely after a viral tweet (seen below, right) by a parody account of Attorney General Merrick Garland made this claim, earning almost 12,000 likes in two weeks on July 13th.^[10]

On July 10th, a Twitter account posing as "Tiffany Gomas" started tweeting commentary on the incident, stating (as Tiffany Gomas) that it had in fact seen a shapeshifter on the plane and had since seen others.^[11] For a time, its profile picture was a photo taken from the video of the woman on the plane.

On July 18th, 2023, Twitter user @AlphaFox78 (the account responsible for the manga-style redraw of the woman which was paired with the TMFINR slogan) was briefly suspended.^[12] The "Tiffany Gomas" account appeared to claim responsibility for the suspension (seen below, left) and then was later suspended itself for being an "unlabelled parody account" (seen below, right).^[13] As of August 8th, 2023, the tweets of @TiffanyGomas remain unavailable and the account is blank but a record of it still exists.^[14]

Confirmation of Tiffany Gomas' Identity

On July 22nd, 2023, investigative journalist Bree A. Dail published a post to her Substack claiming to have tracked down the woman in the video through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. In the documents Dail found, the woman was identified as Tiffany Gomas, a Dallas, Texas resident and marketing executive for the company Uppercut Marketing.^[15]

In the weeks following Dail's reporting, other outlets began to pick up information about Gomas. The story was reported by the New York Post on August 7th, and shortly afterward, posts were made by Yahoo! and other outlets as well.^[16]

According to reports, Gomas faces two charges due to her behavior on the plane, although sources predict that they will likely be dropped. Reporting identifies her as a successful marketing executive who lives in a $2 million home in Texas.^[17]

The reveal of her identity also sparked a resurgence of interest surrounding the story, as well as content discussing it. For example, the YouTube channel Unexplained Mysteries uploaded a video on August 7th discussing the update, receiving over 22,000 views in 17 hours (shown below).

Tiffany Gomas' Apology Video

On August 13th, 2023, Gomas posted an apology video to the website formerly known as Twitter,^[19] marking the first time that she revealed her face post-virality. In the video, she apologized for her behavior and stated, among many things, that she found some of the memes funny but also invasive and cruel. She also announced the launch of her website tiffanygomas.com^[20] where she would seemingly start an anti-cyberbullying campaign. The post gained roughly 17.1 million views and 47,500 likes in one day (shown below).

I apologize and take accountability for my actions, they were uncalled for. My very worst moment was captured on video. Although the memes have been amusing, the flipside has been cruel. I’m thankful for my friends and family for supporting me through this. This experience has… pic.twitter.com/0AfQcaEzj0

— Tiffany Gomas (@Tiffany_Gomas) August 13, 2023

The video response from Gomas was widely covered online that day by numerous media outlets, including Memebase.^[21]

Possible Identity Of "Not Real" Passenger

On August 16th, 2023, TikTok account @chroniclesofoliviabackup released police bodycam footage of the man sitting next to Gomas at the time of her freakout talking to cops. This led to speculation that he was the man Gomas accused of being "not real," though some commenters were not convinced, citing the fact Gomas said the man "in the hoodie" was not real, and the passenger in the video is in a button up shirt. The video was covered by eBaum's World.^[22]

'Pardon My Take' Appearance

Gomas was interviewed on a November 3rd, 2023 episode of the sports podcast 'Pardon My Take,' and shared details about her story and the original incident on the airplane. When asked who or what she saw, she answered "I did not see anything."

According to Gomas, she gave up her aisle seat for another passenger and was in the middle seat with a "really bad energy" and got into "a bit of an altercation that spiraled out of control." She went on, saying the TMFINR catchphrase was "was an expression of speech" and she did not actually see an alien or any other sort of unusual being. She blamed the media and specifically the Daily Mail for running with the story and capturing her bad moment.^[23]

Online Reactions

As the video went viral in early July 2023, several commenters posted jokes that they probably would have gotten off the plane with her, joking that she must have had a premonition of a disaster similar to the movie Final Destination. For example, on July 3rd, 2023, Twitter user @kirawontmiss^[5] made the comparison, gaining over 7,100 retweets and 125,000 likes in three days (shown below, left). That same day, user @BDTRELILBROTHER^[6] also joked they would have left the plane with the woman, gaining over 6,300 retweets and 76,000 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Others joked about who the woman could have seen when she claimed the individual was "not real." On July 6th, Twitter user @Anonymous_Goul posted an edit of the video that saw the woman seeing Ryuk from Death Note, gaining over 470 retweets and 3,800 likes in a matter of hours (shown below, top). On July 3rd, user @ArtByTCustoms joked that she'd seen Scooby-Doo in a disguise, gaining over 50 retweets and 270 likes in three days (shown below, bottom).

She’s seen Ryuk pic.twitter.com/Wr4U5yD8Qo

— Anonymous user (@Anonymous_Goul) July 6, 2023

The motherfucker in the back https://t.co/nvoSdQEWCX pic.twitter.com/AfCRffzuqZ

— Iceberg $lim (@ArtByTcustoms) July 3, 2023

Related Memes

TMFINR

TMFINR is an acronym for "That Motherfucker Is Not Real," a memorable line and slang from the viral public freakout video in which a woman claimed a passenger on her flight was not real and wanted to get off the plane. As the woman was celebrated by some conspiracy theorists on Twitter, "TMFINR" became an acronym used in conspiratorial memes and claims that celebrities and politicians were "not real," referencing reptilian and body double conspiracies, as well as being used ironically in memes or troll posts.

Various Examples

Me walking right behind her https://t.co/VFbBqeYZzq pic.twitter.com/m1XRgzDl32

— you mfs better stop unfollowing me🤡 (@Gloss_mee) July 3, 2023

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References