AirAsia crash: Search for bodies could end if no more are found

Days of rough weather and poor underwater visibility hampered navy divers' efforts.

Indonesia's search for dozens of victims still unaccounted for from last month's crash of an AirAsia passenger jet could end within days if no more bodies are found, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

The Airbus A320 vanished from radar screens in bad weather over the Java Sea on 28 December, less than half-way into a two-hour flight from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-biggest city, to Singapore. All 162 people on board were killed.

Indonesia's civilian National Search and Rescue Agency said it would scour the sea for bodies for at least another week.

The military withdrew from the search on Tuesday, apologising to the victims' families for not being able to do more after a month of work.

A multinational search and recovery operation has found 70 bodies in the Java Sea and had hoped to find more after finding the fuselage of the plane. But days of rough weather and poor underwater visibility hampered navy divers' efforts.

Divers have recovered both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the sea floor.

Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee will submit its initial findings on the crash this week to the International Civil Aviation Organization, though only the final report will be made public.

Investigators say they have yet to start their analysis of the aircraft's two "black box" flight recorders and have been compiling other data for the inquiry.