When a distressed passenger asked airhostess Natalya Tyukavkina for a glass of water and a painkiller, little did the attendant know that she was about to turn into a midwife.

Pregnant mother-of-two Asya Agayeva, 24, was on a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Ingushetia to Moscow when she realized she was about to give birth.

Agayeva was fleeing Chechnya to stay with relatives in Moscow and had boarded the plane with her two sons, aged 3 and 5, leaving her husband Lecha, 33, at home in the village of Valerik, some 35 km southeast of Grozny.

"Half-an-hour through the flight," Tyukavkina said, "a fellow flight attendant came up to me and said there was a pregnant woman asking for help. I went to check and asked her what month she was in. She said it was the final month of her pregnancy."

In a few moments, labor began. Fortunately for the two women, another passenger, Irina Nazarova, leaped into action. Head of a hospital and a certified international rescue worker, she knew exactly what to do.

"We gathered all clean seat covers, tore down curtains and washed hands with vodka," said Nazarova. "Passengers from the business class stood up and left; Asya and I moved in."

Within minutes, the proud mom was cradling a beautiful baby girl in her arms. "It was scary at first, but I didn't panic," she said. "Everyone was trying to help."

Tyukavkina said both the crew and passengers were overjoyed with the happy delivery, congratulating each other on the little stowaway. They collected money for the baby and dubbed her "diamond" after the airline's name, Karat (Carat).

Tyukavkina now wonders whether Karat's Yak-42 aircraft will be recorded in the girl's papers as her birthplace.

"I was as happy as if it had been me who had given birth," she said. "I wasn't so overwhelmed even at my own wedding. Giving birth on a plane is so rare that even my parents, who had spent 25 years flying, could not remember a single occasion."

At Moscow's Vnukovo aiport, where the plane landed ahead of schedule, the mother was greeted with a bouquet of flowers and rushed to a Moscow maternity hospital. She left a week later and is now at home in the capital with her brother-in-law, Dukvakh Zubairayev, and his wife, Zairema. They have named the baby Eliza.

Zubairayev said the young family now faces the tough task of getting Moscow registration in the wake of the crackdown that has followed Moscow's two September apartment block explosions.

He said his own registration expired days before Agayeva arrived and that the Moscow authorities often refuse to discuss re-registration with Chechens.

Meanwhile, Agayeva is missing her husband and is unable to get news from the war-torn region.

"There is hope," said Zubairayev. "There's a saying that if women bear boys, it's for the war; if girls, there should be peace. On the eve of the first war in 1994, Asya gave birth to her first son. This time it's a girl."