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was almost stopped from going on his stag do at the airport because security thought he looked too realistic in an embarrassing fake female cabin crew outfit. Dad-of-three Joe Vale, a bathroom fitter from Birmingham, West Midlands, was dressed in a navy and yellow women's air crew-style outfit cobbled together from the internet by his best man for less than £50.

completed with a Ryanair-style lanyard featuring a picture of Mr Vale, not in uniform, and bearing the name "Joe-Anne". Mr Vale, who had passed security and baggage checks, was in Wetherspoons in Birmingham Airport departure lounge enjoying a few pre-flight beers with his friends before their flight to Portugal on Thursday May 8.

But disaster struck when four security guards approached the group and told Mr Vale he could not get on his flight because he was 'impersonating an airline crew'. Mr Vale said they even threatened to call the police.

Confused how anyone could mistake him for official aircraft employees, Mr Vale and his best man Rob Hampson pleaded with the security team to see some common sense.

At one stage the group even asked for help from another stag in the bar who was dressed as a pilot, who the security team didn't stop. After a tense stand-off, a supervisor eventually arrived who said Mr Vale and his group could board the plane if they agreed to hand over the lanyard.

Mr Vale, who will marry Lizze on May 25, said it was ridiculous to think anyone could mistake him for genuine cabin crew.

He said: "They must have been watching me on the cameras. They were quite rude, really. I had my lanyard on, and it had a picture of me and the name Joe-Anne, and they told me it was an official one, which it obviously wasn't.

"They said they had to take the ID off me, or I couldn't get on the plane. We tried to explain it wasn't a real ID. They questioned me about where we bought the official pass from, and we said it wasn't official; we bought it off the internet.

"There was another stag dressed as a pilot and I joked with him I needed help, but they didn't stop him. It was very random. Embarrassing the stag and dressing him up is part of our culture. People have been doing things like this forever.

"I was having real trouble with my tights, there's no way I looked like genuine cabin crew."

Joe added that once he and his friends were on the plane the Ryanair crew saw the funny side, although he added: "I was told to sit down at one stage because I did the hand signals behind the lad who was doing the safety demonstration before take-off.

"He saw the funny side though."

Best man Rob Hampson was the brains behind the outfit after seeing a similar stunt on TikTok, in which a stag posed for pictures in a cabin crew outfit and was filmed on a plane collecting rubbish.

He said he spent around £12 on the clothes for the outfit, £5 on the shoes, and the most expensive part was the lanyard, which was £15. Mr Hampson said: "We wanted to make him look as stupid as possible, but he actually ended up looking really good.

"I was in the other bar when security turned up and the lads came and got me and told me they had said he was impersonating a staff member, and I was like, 'what?'.

"They told me they are not letting him on the plane. I said to the security bloke, 'you're not being serious, are you?', and he said, 'yeah, deadly serious'.

"We had just come through security, we had his passport with his picture on, it was blatantly obvious we were on a stag do.

"They told us they would have to get the police involved and they asked what we were doing with an 'official' Ryanair air crew outfit. I bought it off Vinted, I bought the cheapest dress, blouse, and tights I could find, it was about £12.

"They asked where we had got the official lanyard from, and I said it wasn't official, I'd bought it off Amazon.

"They told us we can't let him on the plane because he looks too official, and I thought, 'well, at least I've done a good job'. He left my house like that and walked through security dressed in the outfit, he got a lot of attention, but they let him through fine.

"This is why I found it stupid, if you are going to stop someone you do it during the security and passport checks, not when they have gone through and are sitting down having a beer in a pub. It was pathetic.

"They wouldn't allow us on the plane unless we gave them the lanyard, luckily, they didn't make him take the outfit off. It was all just a bit weird and a bit far-fetched.

"It just felt pathetic, if they are going to stop people, they should make it clear what you can and can't wear. A lot of stag dos fly from airports, if you make it clear people can't do it, they'll stop."

Ryanair and Birmingham Airport declined to comment, however, the airport pointed to guidelines on their website. These state: "When dressing for the airport, don't wear fancy dress that represents harmful, threatening, or disruptive activities, as it may cause concern or alarm. This also includes the use of inappropriate props, toy guns and replica weapons.

"Be mindful of clothing with slogans, don't wear inappropriate slogan clothing with disruptive or offensive themes when travelling through the airport. You may be asked to change your clothing or even be prevented from boarding your flight."