Major wreckage of AirAsia spotted

Priority is to recover more bodies from Java Sea amid fears that time is running out, writes Achmad Ibrahim.

Divers and an unmanned underwater vehicle have spotted the tail of the AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea, the first confirmed sighting of any major wreckage after Flight 8501 went down with 162 people on board, an official said.

Powerful currents and murky water continue to hinder the operation, but searchers managed to get a photograph of the debris — about 9km from where the plane lost contact — after it was detected by an Indonesian survey ship, National Search and Rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo told reporters.