While authorities start the grim task of recovering the bodies of victims from the ill-fated AirAsia Flight 8501 on Wednesday, experts will try to figure out from the wreckage the cause of the crash of the Airbus 320-216 with 162 passengers on board.  

The flight from Surabaya to Singapore filled with mostly Indonesian vacationers disappeared from radar on Sunday and its debris discovered two days later in the Java Sea approximately six miles from its last point of contact.

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Crucial to the investigation of the cause of the crash would be the recovery of the two black boxes - the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder - which would provide clues as to the speed, altitude and status of the plane's systems as well as the final words of the pilots from the cockpit.

Six minutes had elapsed between AirAsia Flight 8501's last contact with air traffic control and the moment the plane dropped off the radar.

Former US Federal Aviation Administration official Scott Brenner told Fox News that investigators would immediately want to know "if this is a mechanical flaw or an issue of a pilot error."

If it was the former, Brenner said the French makers of the Airbus would most likely lead an inquiry to find out if other French-made Airbuses can pose risks to the safety of other passengers.  

The condition of the wreckage itself could provide vital clues. The debris would show signs of compression if the plane came down relatively intact, according to Peter Goelz, a former managing director for the National Transportation Safety Board, as told to the Associated Press.

 If the wreckage were torn to pieces, it's an indication of a mid-air breakup, similar to what was observed after the crash of TWA Flight 800 which exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, Goelz added.

Other airplane parts in the debris field such as engines, flaps and rudders will be mapped and together with information from the black boxes point toward plane parts that investigators would be most interested to recover.

Even the passengers' bodies can give probers clues, according to experts. A body wearing a life jacket would mean no mid-air explosion but an indication that the pilot had time to warn passengers of a controlled ditching in the water. So far, bodies recovered from the AirAsia wreckage did not have life jackets on.

Tagsairasia flight 8501, black boxes, wreckage, bodies