AirAsia group chief executive Tony Fernandes acknowledged the announcement in a post on his Twitter account.
"I am led to believe the tail section has been found. If right part of tail section then the black box should be there," he tweeted.
"We need to find all parts soon so we can find all [our] guests to ease the pain of our families. That still is our priority."
AirNav Indonesia, the country's navigation operator, says its employees are clean and there is 'no big money' involved in relation to airlines altering unapproved flight schedules, The Straits Times reports.
Seven officials, including three from AirNav Indonesia, have now been suspended over suspected links to unapproved schedules, including AirAsia's fatal flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore on Sunday, December 28.
"They are clean," AirNav Indonesia's safety and standard director Wisnu Darjono said of the company's employees. "Look at their dull faces. Not possible for them to have lots of money."
AirAsia Flight QZ8501 only has approval to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
It did not have approval to fly the route on Sundays, which is when the flight crashed after losing contact with traffic controllers over the Java Sea.
The seven people suspended in the wake of the plane crash include two from the transport ministry, two from Surabaya's international airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I, and three from AirNav Indonesia.
It comes as crews continue to search for Flight QZ8501's missing black box amid dismal weather.
Search and rescue agency official Supriyadi say it's possible the black box may be buried in the seabed or muddy waters may be impeding its signal.
"They haven't found anything, maybe because the water is turbid and there is zero visibility," Supriyadi said. "There's a possibility it is buried in mud."
Officials believe an Indonesian naval ship may have discovered what is believed to be the tail section of the doomed jet, which is where the crucial data recorder is located.
On Tuesday search teams took advantage of a reprieve from bad weather to try to reach the wreckage of the AirAsia jet.
"Today's weather is friendly, the team can work," the head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, told a news conference in Jakarta.
The devastated families of passengers and crew onboard doomed AirAsia flight have been offered the chance to visit the plane's search location in the Java Sea.
Of the 162 people on board the aircraft when it crashed while en route from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore only 39 bodies have been recovered so far.
Indonesia's armed forces chief General Moeldoko said on Monday they have offered distraught families the opportunity to board an Indonesian naval ship to go out to the crash site, 90 nautical miles off the coast of Borneo island.
The hope is the trip will help "to lessen their sorrow and sense of loss", General Moeldoko said, the Straits Times reports.
The General told family members search teams are "working hard (to find bodies and the plane wreckage) with friendly countries".
"I told them to have trust in the armed forces that we are working hard," he said.
On Tuesday, whole sets of seats from the ill-fated Airbus A320 were pulled from the sea as the recovery mission continued.
It comes after the daughter of the pilot of the ill-fated AirAsia flight made a heartfelt plea to the public to stop blaming her dad for the crash.
Captain Iriyanto's daughter, Angela Anggi Ranastianis, 22, made the statement on television as authorities said they were close to locating the black box of flight 8501.
Ms Anggi Ranastianis said on Indonesian station TV one: 'As a daughter, I cannot accept it. No pilot will harm his passengers.'
"He is just a victim and has not been found yet. My family is now mourning," she said.
- Daily Mail
