A Man Meets Himself On A Plane And Takes Coolest Doppelganger Selfie Ever

Neil Thomas Douglas is a U.K. photographer who boarded a flight to Galway, Ireland last Thursday night to photograph a wedding.

Once Douglas boarded his flight he went to his seat and had to do a double-take. Sitting in Douglas’ seat was his identical twin. Douglas told the Huffington post “I couldn’t believe it!”

The two men started talking, and soon the entire plane became fascinated by the twins. Douglas’s wife then took one of the coolest photos ever.

Lee Beattie, who’s a friend of Douglas’ wife, posted the photo on Twitter, where it began to go viral instantly. She told the Huffington post:

“There was a dude already on [Douglas’] seat. He asked him to move and when the guy looked up, he thought, ‘Holy shit, he looks like me.’ They had a big laugh about it — everyone around them had a laugh, they took a selfie and that was it,”

But the weirdness didn’t end after the flight. The two twins found themselves checking into the same hotel. And later the ran to each other at the same bar. Douglas said:

“I went for a pint in a lovely bar in Galway called The Quays, and bumped into him again.” 

“We had a few pints and listened to the live band.”

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Since going viral, the photo launched a ginger bearded phenomenon. Ginger bearded men from around the world posted pictures of themselves, claiming to be the third doppelganger.

For those unfamiliar with the term doppelganger here’s a brief definition:

“In fiction and folklore, adoppelgänger or doppelga(e)nger(/ˈdɒpᵊlˌɡɛŋə/ or /-ˌɡæŋə/; German:[ˈdɔpəlˌɡɛŋɐ] ( listen), literally “double-goer”) is a look-alike or double of a living person, sometimes portrayed as aparanormal phenomenon, and in some traditions as a harbinger of bad luck. In other traditions and stories, they recognize your ‘double-goer’ as an evil twin.

The word doppelgänger is often used in a more general sense to describe any person who physically or behaviorally resembles another person.”

In one of my favorite twilight zone episodes, titled “Mirror Image”, a character named Vera Miles started to believe she was going crazy after going to the bus station in order to catch a bus leaving town. Soon various people at the station began to share accounts of  previous actions and conversations in which she had no memory of. Each account pushes her closer and closer to the edge of her sanity. Towards the end of the episode, she started to sink into madness as she witnessed her identical twin leaving on a bus that she was meant to be on.

But of course, Douglas’ story has a much happier ending. What would you do if you met your doppelganger on a plane? By the way, the two men are now Facebook friends.

Here’s a video: