When he raised a triumphant fist in the air, flydubai passenger Asaf Rajuan didn’t realize his pose mimicked President Donald Trump’s after he was shot and a bullet grazed his ear during an assassination attempt in July 2024. Both men struck a pose lifting their right fists in the air with blood dripping down their faces, looking uncannily alike.

The photo went viral, not least because of its coincidental but remarkable resemblance to the iconic Trump photo.

Trump’s photo was taken by Evan Vucci, a photographer for the Associated Press, on July 13, 2024, while the then-presidential candidate spoke at a campaign stop. After a bullet grazed his ear and just before he was swarmed by Secret Service agents, Trump pumped a fist in the air and shouted, “Fight!” The iconic image became an internet phenomenon, besides dominating mainstream media as it became the face of Trump’s campaign for president.

An early post of the photo by Elon Musk garnered 176 million views and 3 million likes.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post Sunday about the photo, Rajuan laughed about it, saying, “I didn’t plan it.” Addressing the resemblance between the two photos on Channel 12, he said that the gesture was spontaneous and that he found the incident humorous.

Rajuan said that the photo was taken shortly after the co-pilot had been restrained, and that he hadn’t even noticed he was bleeding.

“People told me to touch my face. I didn’t even understand what they were talking about,” he told the Post.

The incident unfolded Sept. 30 when a fight broke out in the cockpit of flydubai Flight 1073, which was carrying about 180 Israeli passengers. The alleged hijacker, Hamam al-Hammami, who was a co-pilot, tried to take control of the Boeing 737 MAX, managing to push the aircraft into a nosedive of 14,000 feet in just one minute. Passengers rushed the cockpit, which had been opened by Indian pilot Smit Machchhar just before he lost consciousness, and subdued the potential hijacker. Two pilots who had been on the flight took control and diverted the plane to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, where Machchhar and Hammami were taken to a hospital for treatment. Video footage shows that a passenger was wounded and bleeding as well.

A subsequent investigation revealed that Hammami intended to kill the captain and take control of the flight, planning to crash into Ben-Gurion International airport.