Man boards plane to find himself sitting in his seat

Seen double lately?

Not to worry you or anything but we may need to ask ourselves if our Earth has collided with a parallel universe where other versions of us are roaming around and doing different things.

Earlier this week, a photograph of two exchange students meeting at university in Germany went viral because the two complete strangers (from the UK and Ireland respectively) looked exactly alike. Identical.

And now, in what could have easily been the crux of a science-fiction thriller, if science-fiction thrillers ever started on Ryan Air flights, a man boarded a plane and found himself sitting in his own seat. Really: rounded rosy cheeks, bushy ginger beard, hearty smile, neatly trimmed haircut – it was him all right.

"I'm sure I said something along the lines of 'Hey brother'," said Neil Douglas, a 32-year-old photographer from Glasgow who you can see on the right in the photograph below. "He ended up sitting right next to me. It was all good fun. We had a laugh about it so I had to take the photo."  

It was odd enough these two would be on the same flight, let alone be paired next to each other like conjoined twins on their way for a big operation as everyone duly took photos. But stranger was to come, as once Douglas left the airport, he went to check in at Jury’s Inn Hotel, when who did he see? His double, again.

Being in Ireland, the two did what anyone would do and headed straight for the bar for a deserved pint, where they also took another photo to highlight that for all the facial features there is one difference between them. A sizeable difference as you can see below.

Douglas said in an interview with The Mirror that he forgot the name of his doppelganger, only saying he's 35 and from London. Clearly too much beer or maybe he really is clearly a glitch in the Matrix.

We’re just glad their trip wasn’t long haul. Could you imagine the holdup at passport control when these two twins try and get through security with different surnames?