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span class="inline inline-left">Shattered: Part of the tail of AirAsia flight QZ8501 recovered from the Karimata Strait is hoisted onto the deck of the Crest Onyx anchor handling vessel on Saturday.-Antara/Pool/Prasetyo UtomoAfter a three-day operation, searchers recovered the tail of AirAsia flight QZ8501 from the depths of the Karimata Strait on Saturday.

Navy spokesman Comm. Manahan Simorangkir said divers and sailors from the KRI Banda Aceh vessel surfaced the tail from a depth of around 30 meters.

'€œAt 11:48 a.m. local time [the tail section] appeared on the surface,'€ Manahan said in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan.

On Thursday, divers attached a flotation device to the tail section. The operation was halted when currents intensified after a second team attached another flotation device.

On Saturday morning, 47 Navy divers and 10 divers from the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) resumed work at 6 a.m.

At 10:12 a.m., the team filled the flotation devices with air from six tanks. Divers then went underwater six times to attach additional flotation devices.

At 11:48 a.m., the last divers resurfaced, followed by the flotation devices that lifted the tail section to surface.

At 12:20 p.m., the tail section emerged from the water. Searchers used a crane to lift the section onto the deck of the Crest Onyx, a vessel owned by the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKKMigas).

Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Moeldoko was the first to inspect the tail section.

Moeldoko said he would personally hand over the tail section to the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), the agency tasked with leading the investigation into the plane crash.

'€œWe are handing it over to the KNKT to investigate [whether] the black boxes are inside the tail section,'€ he said. '€œOur task is to search and hoist. This has been accomplished. Whether the black boxes are there or not, it'€™s not our [task].'€

Moeldoko has been criticized for his takeover of the search and rescue operation following the discovery of the tail section.

House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon of the Gerindra Party said that Moeldoko'€™s presence might have caused confusion within the chain of command.

Moeldoko, an Army general, defended his move, saying that the high-stakes operation required his direct supervision.

As the KNKT launched its probe into the tail section, Basarnas looked into the possibility that the black boxes were dislodged from the plane during the crash, after sonar operators from navigation vessel Jadayat detected signals that might be from the black boxes on Friday about a kilometer southwest of where the tail was found.

'€œWe are still trying to establish the coordinates [of the signal] so the scope of the search does not go beyond 500 meters,'€ Basarnas operations chief SB Supriyadi said on Saturday.

Separately, Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan said that the operation should focus on retrieving bodies from the crash site rather than the black boxes.

'€œSearching for the black boxes is not a priority. Finding the passengers is more important,'€ Jonan said as quoted by Antara news agency.