Weather continues to thwart crash rescuers

Poor weather has thwarted attempts to retrieve the bodies of 15 people killed in the one of Australia's worst plane crashes.

The bodies of three women and 12 men who died in the weekend tragedy in far north Queensland will remain in the wreckage for another night after rain and poor visibility today forced rescue teams to suspend all retrieval operations.

Disaster coordinator Superintendent Michael Keating said it had been impossible to send a helicopter to the site to remove the victims from the wreckage, which was located in rugged terrain 30 metres from the top of a rainforest-blanketed hill.

"There's nothing we can do in terms of the weather and obviously when we get interruptions from the weather that slows the whole process down," he said.

"It's a very difficult job. It's the most horrendous of jobs in the most difficult of terrain."