The 30-foot long tailpiece of crashed AirAsia airliner has been hoisted off the bottom of the Java Sea and onto a rescue ship.
The aircraft’s cockpit and flight data recorders are located in the Airbus’ tail, but it is not immediately clear whether they still remain inside or became detached during the crash.
Sonar equipment detected audible underwater pings in the area, but it is unknown at this time whether or not these came from the aircraft’s ‘black boxes’.
Four more bodies were recovered yesterday, two of them still strapped to the aircraft’s seats. A total of 48 bodies have so far been recovered, and it is believed the majority are still inside the fuselage, which has not yet been located.
AirAsia Flight 8501 vanished from radar screens on December 28 with 162 people onboard while en route from Indonesia to Singapore.