Jakarta, Jan 10 (IANS): Indonesia's search and rescue agency Saturday prepared to lift the tail of the AirAsia plane that crashed in the Java Sea Dec 28 with 162 people on board.

"The lifting up process is underway now, using both floating balloons and a crane. Fifteen divers have been sent to handle the process from below the surface," an agency official told Xinhua.

The AirAsia flight QZ8501 with 162 people - 155 passengers and seven crew - went missing soon after taking off from Indonesian city of Surabaya for Singapore Dec 28.

The official said that floating balloons are used to raise the tail from the seabed.

The crane would tow the tail to a navy ship.

Efforts to hoist the tail failed Friday due to the bad weather in the crash site.

Meanwhile, the Indonesia authorities have also sent divers to locate the ping signals from the crashed flight which were detected Friday morning and believed to be from the black boxes.

So far, 46 bodies have been recovered from the sea.