Solemn: The first coffins of AirAsia flight 8501 have taken to Juanda Airport where devastated relatives anxiously have been anxiously preparing to identify their loved ones
Indonesian military personnel carry one of two coffins with the remains of bodies recovered from the AirAsia crash site as they arrive for identification at Juanda Airport
The first bodies arrive at Juanda Airport near Surabaya in East Java province earlier today. Next of kin have been asked for DNA samples to help identify the victims
The bodies were first transported in body bags from the crash site - 100 miles off the Indonesian coast of Borneo Island - to Iskandar Military Airport near the town of Pangkalan Bun (pictured)
Relatives of the AirAsia plane crash victims pray at Juanda Airport in East Java earlier this morning
A Basarnas rescue helicopter is seen behind three covered bodies recovered from the AirAsia plane as they rest on the deck of KRI Bung Tomo warship off the Java Sea, Indonesia
Ships and planes have been scouring the Java Sea for flight QZ8501 since Sunday, when the AirAsia plane lost contact during bad weather 42 minutes into its flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.
Despite suggestions passengers may have been alive during the plane's final few moments in the air, the the pilots did not issue a distress signal in the time between asking permission to fly higher to avoid bad weather and six minutes later when air traffic control lost contact with the plane.
'This morning, we recovered a total of four bodies and one of them was wearing a life jacket,' said Tatang Zaenudin, an official with the search and rescue agency.
He declined to speculate on what the find might mean.
Members of the Indonesian Air Force crew carry a coffin to a transport plane at Iskandar Military Airport on Borneo Island. From there the bodies made the short journey to East Java for formal identification
Live Indonesian television news footage showed at least one corpse floating in the water yesterday
Search teams monitor a weather map at Pangkalan Bun air base this morning after stormy weather halted the recovery of victims of AirAsia flight QZ8501
A member of the Indonesian military reacts after seeing an unidentified floating dead body from the doomed AirAsia flight 8501 during a search and rescue (SAR) mission
Tragic: The flight went missing from radar at 6.18am local time - six minutes after last communication with air traffic control - while travelling from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board. Search and rescue workers first spotted a number of bodies and debris floating in the water yesterday morning
Earlier the first coffins containing victims of doomed flight 8501 arrived at an airport where devastated relatives are waiting to identify their loved ones' bodies.
Two coffins were seen at Juanda Airport near Surabaya in East Java province this morning, where a crisis centre has been providing information to anxious family members since the plane vanished from radars just 42 minutes after departing the airport on Sunday.
The bodies were first transported in body bags from the crash site - 100 miles off the Indonesian coast of Borneo Island - to Iskandar Military Airport near the town of Pangkalan Bun, where they were placed in coffins for the short journey to East Java for formal identification.
Next of kin have been asked for DNA samples to help identify the victims.
Meanwhile Indonesian search officials using sonar radar technology have confirmed that they have located the fuselage of the the Airbus A320-200 upside down on the floor of the Java Sea.
Rescue workers said the plane is resting in 30 metre deep water in the area off Borneo Island where bodies and wreckage was found yesterday.
Since the wreckage from the plane was discovered off the coast of Borneo Island, after three days of searching, there have been a number of different body counts from several official sources, including at one point yesterday that 40 bodies had been recovered from the sea.
However, the chief of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, Bambang Sulistyo, has confirmed that seven bodies have been recovered including two males, along with one female who was wearing a flight attendant uniform.
He said half of those found were male and half female, including the flight attendant. Most of those on board were Indonesians and no survivors have been found.
Indonesian Marines carry equipment from an air force plane during search and rescue operations
Indonesian marines unload their diving equipment as they prepare to join the search operation for the plane
Officers of the National Search And Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) examine maps of the area where the debris and bodies from AirAsia flight 8501 were found
Several pieces of red, white and black debris - including luggage, a plane door and an emergency slide - were were spotted in the Java Sea near Borneo island on Tuesday.
A 38-year-old Indonesian fisherman, Mohammed Taha, was reportedly the first person to spot any wreckage - despite the multi-million dollar air-search for the jet.
Mr Taha spotted metal objects in the water but didn't know a plane was missing until he returned to his home in the village of Belinyu on Monday, Indonesian news website Tempo reported.
'I found a lot of debris - small and large - in the Tujuh islands,' Mr Taha said.
'The largest was four metres long and two metres wide. They were red coloured with white silver. It looked like the AirAsia colours.'
Indonesian police officers erect a tent during the ongoing search and rescue operation at Iskandar Military Airport, Pangkalan Bun, Borneo, Indonesia
An air force officer walks through the rain at Pangkalan Bun air base after the operation to find the missing Malaysian air carrier AirAsia flight QZ8501 was halted due to bad weather
A plastic suitcase, un-inflated emergency and oxygen tank from doomed flight 8501 were displayed by rescue workers at Pangkalan Bun airport in Indonesia yesterday
Hernanto, head of the search and rescue agency in Surabaya, said rescuers believed they had found the plane on the sea bed with a sonar scan in water 30-50 metres (100-165 feet) deep. The black box flight data and cockpit voice recorder has yet to be found.
Authorities in Surabaya were making preparations to receive and identify bodies, including arranging 130 ambulances to take victims to a police hospital and collecting DNA from relatives.
'We are praying it is the plane so the evacuation can be done quickly,' Hernanto said.
Strong wind and waves hampered the search and with visibility at less than a kilometre (half a mile), the air operation was called off in the afternoon.
'We are all standing by,' Dwi Putranto, heading the air force search effort in Pangalan Bun on Borneo, told Reuters.
'If we want to evacuate bodies from the water, it's too difficult. The waves are huge and it's raining.'
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said his priority was retrieving the bodies.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo (C) speaking in an Air Force aircraft Hercules C-130 during the search and locate (SAL) operation for missing AirAsia flight QZ850
A crew member of Indonesian Navy CN-235 airplane prays prior to the start of a search operation for the missing AirAsia flight 8501
Relatives, many of whom collapsed in grief when they saw the first grim television pictures confirming their fears yesterday, held prayers at a crisis centre at Surabaya airport earlier today.
AirAsia Chief Executive Tony Fernandes has described the crash as his 'worst nightmare' and told Indonesia's President that he believes the crash was caused solely by bad weather.
Despite the black box recorder having not yet been found, Mr Fernandes said there was 'some very unique weather conditions in the area at the time'.
He then added:'We cannot make any assumptions about what went wrong. All I can say is that the weather in south-east Asia is bad at the moment.'
At a press conference yesterday he said: 'This is a scar with me for the rest of my life...There is at least some closure as opposed to not knowing what's happened and holding out hope.'
There were no immediate reports of any survivors, although the presence of a life raft and corpses seen holding hands has raised hopes that some people may have survived the crash.