Divers have found at least one of the black boxes from the crashed AirAsia plane that came down in the Java Sea, say reports.

Salvage experts have so far failed to retrieve it because it is stuck under debris from the main body of the plane, a spokesman for the Indonesian transport ministry said.

It comes as officials in Indonesia say they have identified the bodies of three more victims of the disaster.

AirAsia flight QZ8501 came down on route from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore a fortnight ago with 162 people aboard. 48 bodies have been recovered so far.

"The navy divers in Jadayat state boat have succeeded in finding a very important instrument, the black box of AirAsia QZ8501," said Tonny Budiono, a senior ministry official.

On Saturday, a section of the plane's tail section was pulled from the sea, raising hopes that the black box would be found soon.

It had been hoped that the black boxes would be inside, but on Friday pings were detected a mile away suggesting they had landed elsewhere.

SB Supriyadi, a director with the National Search and Rescue Agency, said that the signal was faint and the boxes were likely to be deep in mud.

There are normally two in-flight data recorders - one that holds flight data and one that records the voices of those in the cockpit.

Both are usually housed in the tail of an Airbus A320-200.

AP reported that more pings had been heard in two different locations in the preceding 24 hours since the tail fin was removed from the water.

Originally posted at 13.32