AirAsia Plane's Tail Recovered From Java Sea

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Search teams looking for wreckage from the crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501 have pulled the tail section from the sea - but it is not clear if the black box recorders are inside.

TV footage showed a part of the tail being lifted on to a ship, two weeks ago after the plane went down in the Java Sea, killing all 162 people on board.

The Airbus jet went missing in stormy weather on 28 December as it flew from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

The tail was found in the seabed 30m (100 feet) below the surface and was lifted on to a ship using giant floating balloons and a crane.

Navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir said: "We have lifted the tail on to the ship. It's red and white and a big part of the AirAsia logo can be seen."

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Gallery: AirAsia Jet Tail Pulled From Sea

Search teams have recovered a section of the tail of crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501 from bottom of the Java Sea. Continue through for more images of the recovery...

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The black boxes, which could provide vital information about why the jet came down, are normally in the tail section.

An initial search of the wreckage failed to locate them.

Pings from the boxes were detected on Friday, but at a location away from where the tail fin was found.

SB Supriyadi, a director with the National Search and Rescue Agency, said they most likely had been dislodged.

"Last night, our divers had opened the door of the tail cabin, searched around but found nothing," Mr Supriyadi told AFP on Friday morning.

"But the boat above detected faint ping sounds believed to be from the black boxes about one mile (1.6km) southeast of the tail... and covered in mud."

He said a full examination of the fin would take place to determine if the boxes were inside or not. In the meantime, the divers would continue searching the area where the pings were heard.

"There's a team examining the tail again to see if the black boxes are not there," he said.

"But the chances they might find anything there are slim. We still strongly believe that the black boxes are in the sea and our divers are still searching for them."

Meanwhile, the search is continuing for other parts of the plane's wreckage, as well as for the bodies of the passengers and crew.

Just 48 bodies have been found so far. All of those on board died. One Briton was among them.

The Indonesian meteorological agency has said weather was the "triggering factor" for the crash, with the most likely cause being ice damaging the engines of the Airbus A320-200.

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Gallery: The Search For The Missing AirAsia Plane

Relatives at Surabaya airport weep as they receive news that bodies have been found in the hunt for the missing AirAsia plane

There were 162 passengers on board, including one British man, Chi Man Choi, and his two-year-old daughter

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Before take-off, the plane's pilot, Captain Iriyanto, had asked for permission to fly at a higher altitude to avoid a major storm.

The request was not approved due to other planes flying above him, according to Indonesia's air traffic control.

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