The evacuation of bodies found at the AirAsia crash site faces setback due to bad weather that makes helicopters fail to pick up the bodies from the Indonesian navy ship.

"Weather at the crash site is still dark, clouds are thick below 3,000 feet. Five bodies are still kept in Bung Tomo navy ship," Air Vice Marshall Sunarbowo Sandi told a press conference at the command post center of AirAsia plane victims operated here on Wednesday.

Sunarbowo said bodies of one female and one male teenager were transferred to Surabaya for further postmortem examination. Seven bodies have been recovered so far by the Indonesian evacuation team.

Before being transferred to Surabaya, the two bodies were examined at a local hospital in Pangkalan Bun.

Facing the severe weather, Sunarbowo said, the Bung Tomo navy ship was told to move closer near the coastline to help with the helicopters' transfer mission.

Indonesian Air Forces West Fleet Commander Air Marshal Dwi Putranto also said due to the bad weather, efforts to evacuate the bodies from Bung Tomo navy ship was halted.

"If the condition is not favoring the activities, it would be stopped. It would resume soon after the weather condition improves. We would send our helicopters at any possible time," Dwi said.

Dwi said 18 vessels from several countries are involved in further search on debris and bodies.

The United States navy ship USS Hampson, several hours away from the site, would take part in the searching efforts, Dwi added.

Sunarbowo said Indonesia would use the sonar technology in the search mission.

The ill-fated Singapore-bound AirAsia QZ8501 flight that departed from Indonesia's Surabaya carried 155 passengers and seven crews.

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