Investigators searching the Java Sea for signs of the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 have confirmed wreckage and bodies discovered came from the plane.

However, the main fuselage has yet to be found. This is important because it contains the black box, which will have recorded all the flight data, and could offer important clues as to why the Airbus A320-200 ended up in the sea.

The search should be less challenging than efforts to find flight MH370, which was lost in the Indian Ocean in March 2014. This is because the waters are significantly shallower in the Java Sea. The sea around the crash site is only 25m deep, and the seafloor has the potential to be searched by divers.

Flight QZ8501 disappeared on December 28th. Its last contact with air traffic controllers was requesting to increase its altitude to avoid bad weather. It did not issue any distress signal.

There were a total of 162 passengers and crew on board the plane. So far, around 40 bodies have been recovered.