A Reddit post resurfaced the story of a man who found his doppelganger seated next to him on a flight in 2015, drawing fresh reactions more than a decade after the original viral moment. The post was originally uploaded under the subreddit r/whoathatsinteresting by user lofilusterica.
The two men looked nearly identical. Not only did they both have red hair, they had the same beard and even the same smile. The only difference? One man was slightly taller than the other. The post featured a collage of photos the duo took together.
“A man boarded a flight and discovered the stranger sitting next to him looked almost exactly like him,” the Reddit user wrote in his caption. “Same ginger beard, same hair, same smile. Their selfie went viral, and after landing, they discovered they were even staying at the same hotel.”
According to the BBC, Lee Beattie, director of Wire Media, first shared the selfie on Twitter at the time. "Guy on right is the husband of my friend. Guy on left is a STRANGER he met on a flight last night,” she wrote in her caption at the time.
According to the outlet, Scottish photographer Neil Thomas Douglas was on a routine flight when he found himself seated next to a stranger who looked remarkably like him. The Glasgow native boarded a Ryanair flight to Galway via London Stansted in October 2015, only to find someone already sitting in his assigned seat. When the man looked up, Douglas was stunned by the uncanny resemblance.
Viral Flight Doppelganger Selfie Resurfaces and Netizens Share Similar Mind-Blowing Coincidences
Douglas said that the encounter amused everyone on the flight and they took a selfie together. The selfie quickly spread across social media, drawing thousands of shares and comments from amazed users. The coincidences did not end on the plane. Later that evening, both men were shocked to discover they had booked rooms at the exact same hotel in Galway. Shortly after, they ran into each other a third time at a local pub. They enjoyed a pint together.
Redditor lofilusterica’s post brought renewed attention to the viral story. Many joked that it was a simulation or "a glitch in the matrix."
“Fully believable. I went to school with a boy who looked exactly like me and was born on my birthday but in a different state than me and we were also alphabetically next to each other. Watch my luck, he will show up in Reddit somehow. If you think it's you and your name starts with a k and our grade school started with an r, hi,” a fellow Redditor commented.
Another user added, “The 2nd one arriving on his plane seat must have thought he was having an out-of-body experience: ‘How am I sitting down already?!’”
“Great story. I once bought two seat tickets for a football match with a friend. There were 56,000 spectators in the stadium, and we ended up sitting next to my boss, who held a season ticket for the seat right next to us,” commented a separate user.
A fourth Redditor joked, “Still a better love story than twilight.”
The core events surrounding Neil Thomas Douglas and his doppelganger were originally reported by the BBC. The Daily Dot could not independently verify the Reddit commenters' personal anecdotes. The details above reflect the BBC's 2015 reporting and the post shared on r/whoathatsinteresting by u/lofilusterica.
