AirAsia QZ8501: Divers recover 'black box' flight recorder

Indonesian divers have retrieved the flight data recorder of crashed AirAsia Flight QZ8501, say officials.

The head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, Bambang Soelistyo, said teams were still looking for the second device, its cockpit voice recorder.

AirAsia flight QZ8501 disappeared in bad weather on 28 December with 162 people on board.

The aircraft was flying from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore and is lying 30m (98ft) deep in the Java Sea.

Dozens of bodies have been recovered but most of the victims are believed to still be inside the fuselage, which has not yet been found.

It is hoped that the recovery of the flight data recorder will help investigators find out what happened to the plane during what should have been a brief flight.

Speaking in Jakarta, Bambang Soelistyo told reporters: "I received information from the National Transport Safety Committee chief that at 07:11 AM (00:11 GMT), we succeeded in bringing up part of the black box that we call the flight data recorder."

"What we are still trying to find is the cockpit voice recorder."

The "black box" flight data recorders are usually housed inside the rear part of the plane.

They are designed to survive a crash and being submerged in water, and contain underwater locator beacons which emit the so-called "pings" for at least 30 days.

Over the weekend, the tail section of the Airbus A320-200 was brought to the surface, but the flight recorder was not inside it, as had been hoped.