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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Indonesian officials have said that three pieces of airplane debris sighted off Kalimantan coast in the Java Sea is likely to be from missing AirAsia jet.

At a press conference on Tuesday, the head of the search and rescue mission, said that definitive debris, including an exit door from the Flight QZ8501 was found during the search.

Indonesia's national broadcaster reported sighting bodies floating in the waters, and citing Indonesian officials as saying that there was a shadow of the plane underneath the sea.

AFP news agency, citing reports from the Indonesian navy, said that more than 40 bodies were retrieved in the search.

Six bodies were discovered about an hour and a half flight away from Surabaya earlier on Tuesday.

"The debris is red and white," Djoko Murjatmodjo, acting director-general of air transportation at the Transportation Ministry, told reporters. "We are checking if it's debris from the aircraft. It's probably from the body of the aircraft."

Flight QZ8501 went missing after air traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft about 45 minutes after it left Juanda international airport at Surabaya in East Java at 5.20am on Sunday (22:20 GMT Saturday).

Shortly before disappearing, AirAsia said the pilot of the plane had asked permission from air traffic control to change course and climb above bad weather in an area noted for severe thunderstorms.

The search for the plane carrying 162 people, is now in its third day.

The airline said most of the passengers on board Flight QZ8501 were Indonesians, with three South Koreans and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France.

The aircraft was operated by AirAsia Indonesia, a unit of Malaysian-based AirAsia which dominates Southeast Asia's booming low-cost airline market.

AirAsia said the missing jet last underwent maintenance on November 16. The company has never suffered a fatal accident.

*Agencies