Indonesia fails to raise tail of AirAsia plane as bad weather strikes

A senior official at Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) said on Friday that operation to lift up the tail of the crashed AirAsia plane was hindered by heavy weather.

"The efforts are yet to succeed due to strong undersea stream and low visibility suffered by the divers as weather has changed fiercely at the location," Director of Operation and Training of BASARNAS SB Supriyadi told Xinhua by phone.

He said that the military team tasked to lift up parts of the plane's wreckage found that sands and mud has poured into the wreckage, making parts planned to be lifted up heavier than initial calculations by the team.

"The weight of the parts we planned to lift up has increased from 10 to 30 tons. Now the team is performing new calculation to assure the success of its operation," Supriyadi said.

Indonesian military has prepared a crane with a lifting capacity of 70 tons and huge balloons to facilitate the operation.

The official said that the operation to lift the tail would resume on Saturday should the weather be favorable to the mission. The search for the black boxes has been declared as priority of the operation.

BASARNAS Chief FB Soelistyo said earlier Friday that the aim of lifting up the tail was to check whether the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, known as black boxes, are still in place. Pings that possibly emitted from the plane's black boxes were detected early Friday.

Flight QZ8501 crashed in the Java Sea near the Karimata Strait on Dec. 28 en route from Surabaya to Singapore with 162 people aboard.