AirAsia Flight 8501 Latest News: Aircraft On 'Unauthorized Schedule' – Indonesian Transport Ministry

The AirAsia QZ 8501 was flying on an unauthorized schedule when it crashed, according to the Indonesian transport ministry, prompting it to suspend the airline's permission to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route.

Flight 8501 crashed on Dec. 28 before New Year in the Java Sea off the island of Borneo, 40 minutes after takeoff from Surabaya, Indonesia, en route to Singapore, with 162 people on board.

The transport ministry claimed AirAsia was not permitted to fly the route on Sundays and the airline had not asked to change its schedule. "It violated its route and schedule permits," said Dyoko Murjatmodyo, the director of Indonesian air transport. He vowed to conduct a thorough probe into all AirAsia flight schedules.

Indonesia AirAsia chief executive Sunu Widyatmoko assured that his company would cooperate with the government probe.

As this developed, the search for more bodies and the wreckage of the ill-fated airbus continued without let-up on Tuesday, according to the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency. The plane was carrying 155 passengers, mostly Indonesians –137 adults, 17 children and one infant – and a crew of seven including two pilots, four cabin crew and one engineer when it vanished from the radar screen.

The plane lost contact with air traffic controllers shortly after the pilots requested a change of flight plan because of the weather.

The cause of the crash is still unknown.

On the sixth day of operation on Saturday, ships with sensitive sonar equipment detected an oil spill and four large plane sections close to each other on the Java sea floor. But they could not immediately retrieve them because of the bad weather. Rough seas and strong currents that keep debris moving have been hindering the search for the past several days.

At least 30 bodies have been found so far, five still strapped to their seats, according to the Indonesian agency. Some of the bodies were transferred to Surabaya to undergo examination and identification. Police have taken DNA samples and compiled medical data from dozens of victims' relatives to help in identifying the bodies.

"Weather permitting, we will focus on underwater detection," said Bambang Soelistyo, head of Indonesia'a National Search and Rescue Agency.

Soelistyo estimated that the fuselage was at a depth of from 80 to 100 feet, and vowed to recover the bodies of "our brothers and sisters, whatever the conditions we face."

Assisted by teams from several countries, including the United States, which have deployed 29 ships and 17 aircraft, the agency said it is stepping up search for the all-important black box and the flight data and cockpit voice recorder, as they are crucial to establish the cause of the air tragedy.