The good weather provided a perfect backdrop for the searchers of the ill-fated AirAsia Flight 8501  to "fight with full force"  in finding the victims last Thursday, as officials hustled and pressured the divers to locate the plane's fuselage quickly.

The first few days proved to be difficult for the searchers as huge waves and strong currents prevented them from searching for bodies and the airlines' black box after it crashed into the Java Sea four days ago.

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Reports said 7 bodies have been recovered,so far, out of the 162 passengers, including crew members  onboard the Airasia Airlines. Two of the victims were taken to Surabaya while four bodies, inside makeshift white boxes with flowers, were loaded onto a transport carrier Thursday morning in Borneo Island.

First Marshal Agus Dwi Putranto, Air Force Operation Commander, said the search is easier now compared to the past two days as the visibility is good and that they were ready to search for more bodies and the plane's wreckage that can reveal the details of the crash.

Four aircraft were dispatched to the crash site just after sunrise last Thursday.

The erratic climate and choppy conditions had prevented divers from going down into the water last Wednesday.Dwi said 18 ships continued to survey the narrowed search areas.

Sonar images taken from an underwater vehicle have identified what appeared to be large parts of the plane but strong currents have been pulling away the debris.  

Reports said Singapore had deployed an unmanned underwater vehicle to help scour the seabed and identify the wreckage  

Thursday's weather--calm seas and blue skies--could aid the divers tremendously in their recovery efforts  that have been severely hampered   by stormy weather in the first two days since the first bodies were recovered last Tuesday.

Vice Air Marshal Sunarbowo Sandi, search and rescue coordinator in Pangkalan Bun, was hopeful that the divers would soon be able to  locate the wreckage site

"It's possible the bodies are in the fuselage," he said. "So it's a race now against time and weather."

Aviation experts and Airasia officials have yet to declare the cause of the crash. Airasia officials  are coordinating with experts to determine how the plane went down halfway through its 2-hour flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore.

The jet's last communication happened when  the pilot asked permission to climb up the clouds despite the storm but was rejected by the control tower because of heavy air traffic.

Five minutes later, the plane disappeared from the radar without issuing a distress signal.

TagsAirAsia, weather, Java Sea, crash