October 16, 1982 - Meet mum's "headache" - the tiny airlines stowaway who took his parents and 500 other Brunei Muslim pilgrims by surprise.

He was not on the passenger list until he came into the world last Sunday on board an aircraft 35,000 feet (114,835 metres) over the Arabian Gulf.

His delighted mother, Hajah Sharifah Rahida bte Syed Mohdzai, 32, was returning from the Haj in Mecca when the infant started to arrive unexpectedly aboard the chartered Malaysian Airlines System (MAS) jumbo jet.

"I felt the pain and an airhostess asked me if I had a headache. She was shocked when I told her I was about to have a baby and there was a bit of panic," Hajah Sharifah said.

The mother was hurriedly moved from her cabin seat to the upper compartment of the plane where the baby, her fifth, was born without any complications.

"It was the easiest of all my births," she said.

She and her husband, Haji Mohammed Zain bin Haji Ismail, 32, were on the last Haj flight to return to Brunei.

The baby made his surprise entrance two hours after the plane took off from Jeddah at the end of the 45-day pilgrimage.

When the plane landed at Kuala Lumpur, a few hours later, airline officials wanted to take Hajah Sharifah and her baby to hospital but she insisted on going on to Brunei.

"I felt absolutely fine," she said.

After the birth, MAS crew banded together and decided to name their new passenger Wan Mohammed Fauzi Shah - and it looks like a name that will stick.

"I like the name and I think we will keep it for our son," the mother said.

The pilot of the aircraft joined other members of the crew in congratulating the proud mum and a wave of excitement swept through the cabin as news of the birth spread.

An ambulance met the aircraft when it touched down at Brunei International Airport and mother and baby were taken to the Bandar Seri Begawan General Hospital where they were "doing just fine" at midweek and preparing to go home to Metropole Park, Jalan Subok, in the capital.

The mother said she was at first advised not to make the trip by her doctor who eventually relented.

The unusual aerial birth has left Hajah Sharifaha little puzzled about where and how the happy event should be registered.

But a spokesperson for the Registrar of Births in Bandar Seri Begawan said, as the parents are Brunei citizens, there should be no problems registering here and the child would be a Brunei citizen.

A MAS spokesman in Kuala Lumpur said: "This is the first time that anything like this has happened on one of our flights as far as I know."

It is also thought to be Brunei's first Haj flight birth.