China is prepared to send more ships and equipment to help look for wreckage and bodies from doomed AirAsia Flight QZ8501, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei has announced.

The spokesman said it is important for Beijing to take part in the recovery operation and it has been in touch with Indonesia.

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China has sent three aviation experts from the Civil Aviation Administration to Jakarta. They arrived at Soekarno Hatta Airport on Tuesday, the first in a series of Chinese aid in the search operation. The team brought communication equipment and portable underwater detection tools.

At the same time, China's rescue ship "South Sea Rescue 101," which is equipped with underwater detection devices, had been deployed from Haikou. The vessel is scheduled to arrive at the search site January 9.

Meanwhile, the Transport Ministry said the vessel, "South Sea Rescue 115," is on standby and another ship, the PLA Navy's Yongxingdao, is also set to arrive at the search site today.

So far, 40 bodies from the ill-fated AirAsia flight, which crashed into the Java  Sea on December 28, have been discovered by a multinational search team. The plane had 162 people onboard.

On Wednesday, searchers found the tail of the plane on the ocean floor some 30 km from the area where it disappeared. The plane's black boxes have yet to be found.