QZ8501 A team of 81 Indonesian divers returned to the sea today to try to examine the fuselage of the AirAsia plane that crashed last month, an official said.

The team failed to reach the fuselage about 30 metres under the sea off Borneo island yesterday because of the strong currents and low visibility, said Suryadi Supriyadi, the search operation director.

“We are considering using inflated balloons to lift the fuselage,” Supriyadi said by phone.

Officials believe that many bodies are still trapped in the wreckage.

So far 50 bodies have been found, nearly three weeks after the aircraft crashed on December 28 on its way from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore with 162 people on board. There have been no survivors.

The fuselage was found on Wednesday, following the retrieval the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the seabed earlier in the week.

Investigators said they had downloaded the data from both recorders and were analysing them to determine the chain of events leading to the fatal crash.

- dpa