Poor weather over the Java Sea has slowed efforts to retrieve bodies and debris from the crashed AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501.

The AirAsia Airbus A320-200 came down on Sunday on route from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore carrying 162 people.

A total of seven bodies have been pulled from the water so far, while parts of the wreckage of the plane have been located.

One of those recovered was a woman reportedly wearing cabin crew uniform.

Next of kin of people on board the aircraft have been asked for DNA samples to help identify the bodies as they are recovered.

On board the plane were 137 adult passengers, 17 children and one infant.

There were also two pilots and five crew.

Most were Indonesian but the passengers also included one UK national, a Malaysian, a Singaporean and three South Koreans.

It is not yet clear what happened to the plane but its last communication was a request from air traffic control to move up to avoid bad weather.

The pilot did not respond when given permission.