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 News of the possible breakthrough came as the transport ministry
in Jakarta said some officials on duty at the time of the accident
will be moved to other roles. It also announced it was tightening
rules on pre-flight procedures.
Ships and aircraft scouring the northern Java Sea for debris and
bodies from the Airbus A320-200 have widened their search to allow
for currents eight days after Flight QZ8501 plunged into the water
en route from Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya to
Singapore with 162 people on board.
"We found what has a high probability of being the tail of the
plane," Yayan Sofyan, captain of the patrol vessel, told reporters.
He was speaking after his ship returned to the port in Surabaya on
Monday, and it was not immediately clear if he was referring to one
of the five large objects pinpointed by search vessels over the
weekend.
Indonesia's meteorological agency has said seasonal tropical storms
probably contributed to the Dec. 28 crash and the weather has
persistently hampered efforts to recover bodies and find the cockpit
voice and flight data recorders that should explain why the plane
crashed into the sea.
 The recorders are housed in the tail section of the Airbus, making
retrieval of that part of the aircraft crucial.
"I am not saying it's the tail yet," the head of Indonesia's search
and rescue agency, Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, told a news
conference in Jakarta. "That is suspected. Now we are trying to
confirm it."
TRANSPORT MINISTRY CRACKDOWN
The transport ministry said some officials at the country's airport
operator and air traffic control agency who were involved with the
AirAsia flight will be moved to other duties while the accident
investigation is completed.
The ministry gave no reason.
It also said that, three days after the crash, it had issued a
directive making it mandatory for pilots to be briefed in person by
an airline official on weather conditions and other operational
issues before every flight.
"A circular has been signed by the transport ministry on December
31, stating that pilots must have a face-to-face briefing with a
flight operation officer so the briefing officer will know the pilot
is in a healthy condition and so on," said Djoko Murjatmodjo, acting
director general of air transportation.
Aviation experts said this was a common practice in the industry,
but it was not immediately clear if it has been normal procedure in
Indonesia.
The main focus of the search is about 90 nautical miles off the
coast of Borneo island, where five large objects believed to be
parts of the plane - the largest about 18 meters (59 feet) long -
have been located in shallow waters by ships using sonar.
While experts say the shallow sea should make the recovery fairly
straightforward in good weather, strong winds and big waves have
frustrated the multinational force of ships and divers that has
converged at the site.
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"The seas haven't been very friendly, but the black boxes have a
30-day life and they will be able to find them," said Peter
Marosszeky, a senior aviation research fellow at the University of
New South Wales in Sydney. "It's the weather that is causing the
delay."
Thirty-seven bodies of the mostly Indonesian passengers and crew
have been recovered, including some still strapped in their seats.
Many more may be trapped in the body of the aircraft.
LICENSE CONFUSION
Indonesia AirAsia has come under pressure from authorities, who have
suspended its Surabaya-Singapore license, saying the carrier only
had permission to fly the route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and
Saturdays. Flight QZ8501 took off on a Sunday.
It was not immediately clear what difference, if any, the day of the
week had on the Dec. 28 flight, and Murjatmodjo made clear that the
investigations of the route and the crash were separate.
"Please differentiate between the probe into flight licenses and the
air crash investigation," he said.
Singapore's civil aviation authority and its Changi Airport Group
said AirAsia had the necessary approvals to operate a daily flight
between Surabaya and Singapore.
Indonesia AirAsia is 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based budget
carrier AirAsia, whose shares fell nearly 5 percent on Monday.
While the license investigation could have serious consequences for
the airline's operations, insurance industry experts said insurers
were expected to pay claims whether or not the airline was properly
licensed to fly on the day.
The crash was the first fatal accident suffered by the AirAsia
budget group, whose Indonesian affiliate flies from at least 15
destinations across the archipelago.
(Additional reporting by Cindy Silviana, Eveline Danubrata and
Charlotte Greenfield in Jakarta, Fransiska Nangoy in Surabaya and
Jane Wardell in Sydney; Writing by Nick Macfie and Alex Richardson;
Editing by Robert Birsel)
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