The tail of AirAsia plane which crashed into the Java Sea Dec 28, 2014, with 162 people on board has been found, Indonesia’s search and rescue agency chief said .

“We have successfully obtained part of the plane that we were looking for. The tail’s portion has been confirmed found,” said Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, Xinhua reported.

The AirAsia flight disappeared from radar screens on Dec 28 en route to Singapore from from Indonesia’s Surabaya with 155 passengers and seven crew on board.

The discovery of the tail is considered a major breakthrough in the search for the missing plane as it usually houses the black boxes – the flight data and voice recorders, which are crucial to identify the cause of a crash.

So far, 39 bodies have been recovered from the sea waters and five large parts believed to be from the jetliner have been detected as the search operation was hindered by unfavourable weather conditions.

Indonesia’s meteorological agency said earlier that the weather was the “triggering factor” in the crash of the plane as icing might have damaged the engine.