Flight 8501 | Tail of crashed AirAsia plane discovered in Java Sea

Divers and an unmanned underwater vehicle yesterday spotted the tail of the AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea with 162 people on board, an important finding because the jet’s all-important black boxes are located in that part of the aircraft.
Powerful currents and murky water continue to hinder the operation, but searchers managed to get a photograph of the debris — about 9 kilometers from where Flight 8501 lost contact Dec. 28 — after it was detected by an Indonesian survey ship, National Search and Rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo told reporters.
One released image appeared to show an upside down “A” painted on a piece of metal, while another grainy shot depicted some mechanical parts.
“Today we successfully discovered the part of the plane that became the main aim since yesterday,” Soelistyo said. “I can ensure that this is part of the tail with the AirAsia mark on it.”
Tony Fernendes, AirAsia’s chief executive officer, welcomed the news. If it is the right part of the tail section, he tweeted, then the cockpit voice and flight data recorders, or black boxes, “should be there.” AP