Recovery teams have made patchy progress in the search for bodies from the wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501 as efforts to reach the wreckage and black boxes beneath the sea became increasingly difficult.

On the tenth day of the recovery operation searchers found the remains of just two more victims.

Hindered by rough seas, the teams have found fewer than 40 bodies since the plane crashed carrying 162 people from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore during a storm early on December 28.

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Recovery workers are also yet to find the “black box” flight data recorders, crucial to determining the cause of the crash, although they say they have located five major parts of the plane on the seabed including a “suspected tail” – where flight recorders are usually housed.

Divers were sent down to the sea floor earlier in the day but poor conditions again hampered their operations, according to search official S.B. Supriyadi.

“Divers haven’t managed to get close to the large parts of the plane so far,” he told AFP from Pangkalan Bun, a town on Borneo island with the nearest airstrip to the wreckage.

The bodies found on Tuesday brought the total recovered to 39, despite an extension to the area of sea being searched in the belief that debris and bodies may have drifted in strong currents.

Indonesian navy commander Yayan Sofyan, whose warship Bung Tomo was the first to find debris last week, described to AFP some of the everyday objects they had recovered.

“We found backpacks, suitcases, shoes, a chair for a baby,” he said, adding that the search teams were determined to overcome the monsoon season weather to find more bodies.

“In our mind we just want to get the victims reunited with the rest of their families.”

Indonesia has ordered the suspension of aviation officials involved in the departure of the flight. It says the flight operated by AirAsia Indonesia was flying on an unauthorised schedule when it crashed.

The airline, a unit of Malaysia-based AirAsia, has been suspended from flying the Surabaya-Singapore route – although Singapore officials said they had given permission for the flight at their end.