Jakarta, Jan 9 (IANS): Three more bodies of those who perished in the AirAsia plane crash Dec 28 in the Java Sea while it was flying from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore, were found Friday by the international search teams, pushing the total recovered bodies to 46.

"In total, we have found 46 bodies out of the 162 passengers of the plane," Antara News quoted an Indonesian rescue official as saying.

He noted that the three bodies found by the Japanese ships JS Katanami and JS Onami have already been transported to a hospital in the Kalimantan province of Indonesia's Borneo island.

The AirAsia flight with 162 people -- 155 passengers and seven crew members -- went missing soon after taking off from Indonesian city of Surabaya for Singapore Dec 28.

Earlier in the day, signals from the plane's Black Box were detected. Seven divers have been deployed to check the signals and confirm its position.

Indonesia's national search and rescue agency Bambang Soelistyo said the search operation would focus on lifting up the plane's tail section, discovered Wednesday as partially buried in the seabed, 30 metres underwater.