The tail of the doomed AirAsia QZ8501 flight has been located in the Java Sea, Indonesia's Search and Rescue agency has said, raising hopes of accessing the black box voice recorder that will hold clues to what led to the fatal plane crash. 

The tail of the plane is said to be the section where the crucial black box voice and flight data recorders are located.

"We have found the tail that has been our main target today. The tail part has been found and confirmed at a position in our second priority sector," the search agency's chief Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo said, according to Reuters.

A total of 39 bodies of people on board the plane that crashed into the sea on 28 December have been recovered so far. There were 162 people, including the crew, on board the Surabaya-Singapore flight. 

Searchers have found several big parts of the plane over the last few days, but the tail section is likely to be the most important part found so far. 

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