Passenger spots incredibly creepy 'person looking at them' on plane leaving social media freaked out before realizing what it really is

A passenger was left freaked out after seeing someone apparently staring at them on a plane - but all was not as it seemed.

A passenger took a terrifying image aboard a recent flight. Credit: urbazon/Getty Images

Air travel can be stressful at the best of times - from trying to keep your luggage within the weight limit, to making sure you get through the security line without missing your flight, by the time your plane takes off you're probably ready to switch off and relax until you reach your destination.

However, other passengers can sometimes make that impossible, as one flier found out after seeing what appeared to be a creepy person staring at them unblinkingly from another seat.

The X (formerly Twitter) user snapped a photo of what appeared to be a man with his face pressed into this seat across the aisle staring at them from beneath his hoody.

The user, who goes by @bluemupp on the social media site, shared the picture and captioned it: "I ALMOST LANDED THIS PLANE MYSELF."

People flooded the post, which has been viewed over 35.7 million times, sharing their terror at the creepy image.

They wrote: "Tf is that?", "Ok but what actually is that," and: "I woulda jumped out."

Others added: "lmfao bro i would’ve been landed bc wtf is a alien doing on there," and: "the scream I would let out is just bizarre."

Thankfully, others managed to decipher the nightmare-inducing image, explaining: "I got this.. that’s a person with their hoodie on backwards over their face and the black thing the looks like an eyeball is a headphone.

"So it looks like they are staring at you creepily but that’s really just the side of their head with a headphone in the ear while the hoodie covers the face."

Thankfully the image was later debunked by another user. Credit: Jasmin Merdan/Getty Images

Many people thanked the user for ending the optical illusion, writing: "Thank you. That would have haunted me for days."

Others added: "Omg you have great eyes, I seent (that’s a real word lol) it after I read your tweet," and: "I pray you’re right or we are in trouble."

Some people were still unconvinced, writing: "I need someone to show me what headphones on the market look like that otherwise I ain’t believing it."

Another commented: "But I see a moustache," while someone else added: "That would make sense if there wsnt a mustache and that doesn't look like a headphone."

Some even joked that creepy entity in the hoody is the "not real" passenger Tiffany Gomas went viral for yelling about on a plane in 2023.

We're going to go with it being a headphone in someone's ear because all of the other options are far too terrifying.

Featured image credit: urbazon/Getty Images