Search teams have found the tail of the crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501 in the Java Sea. Efforts are now being made to retrieve the tail, which is expected to hold the black box.
All times listed are Singapore time. Refresh this page for updates.
10.30PM: General Moeldoko holds strategy meeting for the plane's salvage operation.
9.20PM: Some have called for immediate action to be taken after the Transport Ministry found that 6 airlines had flown flights outside of their approved scheduled routes.
8.49PM: Our reporter Jack Board finds out more about the specialist divers who are tasked with finding debris, bodies, or even the black box.
8.16PM: BASARNAS says a ping can be heard within a 500 metre radius of the plane's tail. There is a possibility the black box has dropped to the sea bed, Jack Board reports. A mission to salvage the plane's tail failed today. Search and rescue authorities cite bad weather as a major factor.
8.16PM: BASARNAS says a ping can be heard within a 500 metre radius of the plane's tail. There is a possibility the black box has dropped to the sea bed, Jack Board reports.
7.15PM: A ramp ceremony is currently underway for seven victims of #QZ8501. Each was brought back to land today.
5.56PM: At a press conference, The Indonesian Transport Ministry revealed that six Indonesian carriers were found to have infringed their approved scheduled routes. A total of 61 route schedules were flouted by Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air, Wings Air, Trans Nusa and Susi Air. The Indonesian Transport Ministry has suspended their scheduled flights until the respective airlines, including AirAsia, re-submit their schedule.
The 61 routes flouted were samples taken from five airports across Indonesia - Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya, Makassar and Denpasar - from Jan 5 to 8. The Transport Ministry's spokesman believes they could have uncovered more if the inquiries were made earlier.
The Transport Ministry will introduce an online system by the end of January for carriers to submit their proposed route schedule, Mr Jonan said. There will also be a "thorough evaluation" on processes involving flight slots.
Disciplinary action will be taken against 11 officers from the ministry who were directly involved in AirAsia's unscheduled route, Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan said. He also admitted that there are improvements needed on the part of the regulator and operators in the Indonesian aviation industry.
5.42PM: Two bodies arrive in Pangkalan Bun. The official body count is now 48, Jack Board reports. 4.50PM: Indonesia's Commander of the Armed Forces General Moeldoko said on Twitter he was aboard the KRI Banda Aceh with divers today, checking on their readiness to lift the plane's tail. He noted that there was “some progress”, but the sea current is hampering search efforts.
3.51PM: At a press conference in Surabaya, police say 25 bodies have been identified and returned to families so far. Authorities have collected DNA samples from 160 out of 162 people on board.
Two passengers - Martinus Djomi and Marwin Sholeh - have been identified.
2.40PM: A piece of AirAsia QZ8501 plane was retrieved on Friday, and it is believed to be a composite piece from near the aircraft's wing, leading AirAsia QZ8501 investigator Nurcahyo, from Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), told reporter Jack Board.
1.12PM: Another two bodies have been recovered, but have yet to be retrieved from vessels at sea, Channel NewsAsia's Jack Board reports.
1.05PM: Chief of Indonesia's search and rescue agency BASARNAS has refuted reports of pings being detected from the black box of QZ8501. He says the agency's pinger locater beacon has not detected any signal.
A search and rescue vessel from China will be arriving in the search area at 5pm today, Channel NewsAsia's senior Southeast Asian correspondent Sujadi Siswo reports.
11.55AM: Five more bodies were flown to Pangkalan Bun from the search site, bringing the total number of bodies recovered to 46.
11.15AM: A ping has been detected by Indonesian vessel KN Jadayat in the hunt for QZ8501's black box recorder, but it has not been identified, Channel NewsAsia's Jack Board reports.
Reuters has cited Santoso Sayogo, an investigator at Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee, as saying that the black box may not be in the tail of the plane and divers are confirming its position.
9.56AM: The Royal Malaysian Navy said on Friday that it had handed over the two bodies recovered by its ships to Indonesia's search and rescue agency BASARNAS.
9.55AM: Japanese helicopter crew flew in an additional two bodies to Pangkalan Bun, bringing the total body count to 44, according to reporter Jack Board.
9.50AM: Malaysia's Navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar said in a tweet that there were 33 ships deployed in today's search operations.
9.15AM: Officials say underwater conditions for dive teams are favourable this morning, Channel NewsAsia's reporter in Pangkalan Bun, Jack Board, reports. However, conditions are expected to take a turn for the worse in the afternoon.
8AM: Recap of what happened on Thursday – 43 bodies have been recovered from the search site. Indonesian search and rescue teams plan to start lifting the crashed AirAsia jet's tail off the seabed on Friday (Jan 9), officials said, raising hopes that "black box" recorders can be retrieved to reveal the cause of the disaster.
