Plane on standby in Antarctic

Kirsty Brown was snorkelling when a leopard seal pulled her under

A plane has been put on standby to fly home the body of a British scientist who was killed by a seal during a diving expedition in the Antarctic.

Kirsty Brown, 28, a marine biologist with the Cambridge based British Antarctic Survey was snorkelling off the Rothera Research Station on the Antarctic Pensinsula when the accident happened last month.

Her body has been kept in a specially made mortuary at the station while BAS staff have waited for a window of opportunity as temperatures have plummeted to -70 C to bring Ms Brown home.

BAS do not usually fly people in or out of the base during the southern hemisphere's winter months, with the first flight usually beginning in October.

But a de Havilland Dash-7 plane is now out in the Falkland Islands and waiting for weather conditions to be perfect before making the six hour flight to the station to collect her body for repatriation.

The Falkland Islands coroner has confirmed that an investigation into her death is being carried out and an inquest is expected to open in Port Stanley in late September.

Miss Brown was attacked by a leopard seal while she was snorkelling.

Two other scientists acting as the shore-cover team saw the incident, and a rescue boat was launched immediately in an attempt to save her.

She was pulled unconscious from the water into the rescue boat where efforts began to revive her.

Despite trying to resuscitate her for an hour, the station doctor and colleagues were unable to save her.

Leopard seals are often inquisitive when they encounter humans.

However, they are not generally known to attack humans unless provoked.

BAS has been carrying out research involving snorkelling and diving for the last 30 years.

Leopard seals can weigh 500 kg

The research project Miss Brown was working on involved looking at the impact of icebergs on Antarctic marine animals communities.

She and her colleagues were working at her study site when the incident occurred.

She was a qualified and experienced scientific diver and joined BAS in summer 2002 on a 30-month contract.