Indonesian searchers said sonar equipment has detected wreckage from the ill-fated AirAsia plane at the bottom of the sea, a day after they spotted the first signs of debris, according to media reports on Wednesday.
Although they do not know weather it is in one piece or broken up, the sonar image may have shown the body of the plane at the sea floor, a search and rescue official, Hernato, said.
Meanwhile, a senior official said on Wednesday that six bodies have been recovered so far, including a woman in a flight attendant outfit.
"As soon as the weather is clear, the bodies will be brought to Pangkalan Bun," the town with the nearest airstrip to the crash site, said Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency.
Hundreds of soldiers, police and personnel of the national rescue agency have been deployed for the searching operation on Wednesday though weather in the area remains unfavorable with waves as high as two to three meters.
Other vessels, including three warships and two survey ships equipped with underwater detectors, are on the way to the site, joining the hunt for the black boxes of the plane.
"We have concerns to secure the flight recorders, believed to be with parts of the plane we haven't found," he said.
AirAsia Flight QZ8501 vanished en route from Indonesia to Singapore Sunday morning and search operation has since been carried out.
On Tuesday, Soelistyo told a press conference that the Indonesian Air Force's Hercules plane saw a "shadow" under water believed to be that of the missing AirAsia plane.
It is reported that investigators are looking into the cause of the crash, the third disaster for Malaysia's civil aviation industry this year.
Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said on Tuesday it would be assisting Indonesia authorities in the search for the plane's recorders.
"An AAIB investigator has arrived in Singapore and has met with Singaporean air accident experts who are assisting the Indonesian investigation," it said in a statement.