(3 Jan 2015) Indonesian officials said on Saturday that they had located wreckage from AirAsia Flight 8501 after sonar equipment detected four large objects on the ocean floor.
"All of them are located inside the priority search area that we decided on two days ago," said Henry Bambang Soelistyo, chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency.
The biggest piece, measuring 18 metres (59 feet) long and 5.4 metres (18 feet) wide, appeared to be part of the jet's body, Soelistyo said.
Though strong currents and big surf have prevented divers from entering waters to get a visual of the suspected fuselage, officials are hopeful they will find many of the 162 passengers and crew who were aboard the plane still strapped in their seats inside.
So far, after nearly a week of searching, only 30 bodies have been found floating in the choppy waters.
The Airbus A320 crashed on 28 December, halfway into a two-hour flight from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, to Singapore.
Minutes before losing contact, the pilot told air traffic control that he was approaching threatening clouds, but was denied permission to climb to a higher altitude because of heavy air traffic.
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