Tail Part of the Air Asia Flight Lifted from the Sea

The tail part of the AirAsia flight QZ8501 has been lifted from the sea. 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.

It was not immediately clear if the cockpit voice and flight data recorders were still inside the tail or had detached when the Airbus A320 plummeted into the sea on 28 December. Their recovery is essential to finding out why it crashed.

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."

Intermittent underwater ping-like sounds were picked up on Friday about half a mile from where the tail was located, but it was unclear if they were coming from the recorders located in the back of the aircraft. It was possible the signals were from another source.

However, SB Supriyadi, a director with the National Search and Rescue Agency, said the recorders 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."

The last contact the pilots had with air traffic control, about halfway into their two-hour journey, indicated they were entering stormy weather. They asked to climb from 32,000 feet (9,753 metres) to 38,000 feet (11,582 metres) to avoid threatening clouds but were denied permission because of heavy air traffic above them. Four minutes later the plane dropped off the radar.

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