DHAKA: An Indonesian warship recovered more than 40 bodies from the sea on Tuesday believed to be passengers from the missing Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501.

A navy spokesman said, reports The Straits Times.

‘Based on the navy radio, it has been reported that the warship Bung Tomo has retrieved 40 bodies and the number is growing. They are very busy now,’ Manahan Simorangkir said.

Earlier, search teams spotted a shadow on the seabed believed to be the missing AirAsia flight, said Indonesia's search and rescue agency chief who was ‘95 percent sure’ debris found belonged to the plane.

‘At 12:50 (local time), the air force Hercules found an object described as a shadow at the bottom of the sea in the form of a plane,’ Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Barsarnas, told a press conference in Jakarta.

‘At 13:25, we spotted a floating object believed to be one of the passengers’ bodies,’ he said.

Relatives of the 162 people on the plane burst into tears in Surabaya, where the plane departed from on Sunday, as they watched television footage showing a body floating in the sea during a live telecast of Soelistyo’s press conference.

BDST: 1629 HRS, DEC 30, 2014

** 6 bodies of ‘AirAsia passengers’ found