AirAsia Flight 8501: Tail Section Probably Located; 4 More Bodies ID'ed, Passenger Seat Recovered

Update as of 6:30 a.m. EST: The condition of the seats from AirAsia Flight 8501, some of which were recovered Monday in mangled pieces, suggest that the plane may have crashed into the Java Sea from a high altitude, Suryadi B. Supriyadi, director of operations for Indonesia's search and rescue agency, said at a press conference on Monday, according to Channel News Asia.

He also added that the three bodies that were recovered Monday were found buckled into their seats. Meanwhile, authorities also said that divers had to call off the underwater search Monday due to rough weather, which reduced visibility to zero.

An Indonesian naval captain said Monday that a patrol vessel has located an object in the Java Sea that could be AirAsia Flight 8501's tail section, where the flight recorders are located. Divers who resumed their efforts to identify the wreckage of the jet reportedly also recovered a mangled passenger seat during the search.

Indonesian police reportedly said that four more bodies -- three male and one female -- have been identified. They were identified as Shiane Josal, 45, Tony Linaksita, 42, Lim Yan Koen, 61, and Yongki Jou, 53, according to Channel News Asia. Indonesia's search and rescue agency chief reportedly said that three more bodies have been recovered from the Java Sea, where the search for the victims and wreckage of the jet is concentrated. A total of 37 bodies have so far been recovered, of which 13 have been identified.

East Java Police reportedly said that 229 experts, including 10 from Singapore, were assisting in the identification process. Authorities have reportedly managed to collect DNA samples of relatives of 146 of the 162 people on board the Airbus A320-200. The last three bodies to be recovered from the sea are now being sent to Surabaya, reports said.

Weather conditions in the search area are now considerably better, but divers are still facing strong currents making it difficult for them to retrieve wreckage of the plane, reports said.

"We found what has a high probability of being the tail of the plane," Yayan Sofyan‎, captain of the patrol vessel, told reporters, according to Reuters. However, the finding is yet to be confirmed by the search agency.

At least five vessels with equipment to detect the plane's black boxes -- which could help determine the cause of the crash -- have been deployed where the suspected plane debris is located, but no signals -- “pings” -- from the data recorders have been detected so far.