AirAsia Flight 8501 'Exploded' Before Impact

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An AirAsia jet which crashed with 162 people on board is likely to have exploded before it hit the sea, according to salvage experts - but other investigators have disputed the claim.

S.B. Supriyadi, a director with the Indonesian national search and rescue agency, said wreckage analysis suggested it had broken apart because the cabin could not adapt to pressure charge caused by the steep descent.

"The cabin was pressurised and before the pressure of the cabin could be adjusted, it went down - boom. That explosion was heard in the area," said Mr Supriyadi.

However, the exact sequence of events is still unconfirmed and an Indonesian transport safety investigator said he disagreed.

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Gallery: AirAsia Jet Tail Pulled From Sea

Search teams have recovered a section of the tail of crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501 from bottom of the Java Sea. Continue through for more images of the recovery...

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"There is no data to support that kind of theory," said Santoso Sayogo, an investigator at the National Transportation Safety Committee.

A team of navy divers has now retrieved the flight data recorder from the plane's wreckage after a fortnight-long search which has been hampered by bad weather.

The flight recorder monitors data such as airspeed and the aircraft's heading, while the cockpit voice recorder, which has yet to be recovered, stores radio transmissions and sounds from within the cockpit.

Sky's Beijing Correspondent Mark Stone said: "Experts will be looking at data which recorded the performance of the engines or other instruments in the cockpit. All of that will be taken to Jakarta and analysed in great detail.

"The conversations the crew had with ground control units in Singapore and Indonesia are already known, but they do not know what conversations took place on the flight deck.

"They know there was no Mayday issued and the cockpit recorder, when it is found, could reveal why."

AirAsia Flight 8501 came down on route from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore a fortnight ago with the loss of all passengers and crew.

Forty-eight bodies have been recovered so far, but the weather has hampered efforts to locate all the victims and the wreckage.

Three more bodies were found on Friday on the seabed, still strapped in their seats.

Two were South Korean nationals travelling with a baby. Their baby has not yet been found, but the infant's carrier was still attached to the man when he was discovered.

Supriyadi said many bodies were believed to be trapped in the cabin and that reaching that part of the wreckage was taking priority.

While the cause of the crash is still unknown, the disaster has once again placed Indonesia's chaotic aviation industry under scrutiny.

Indonesian officials have alleged Indonesia AirAsia did not have a licence to fly the route on the day of the crash, although the airline has rejected the claim.

Indonesia's transport ministry has banned AirAsia from flying the Surabaya-Singapore route and on Friday it suspended dozens more routes operated by five other domestic airlines for similar alleged licence violations.

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