"We have prepared two pneumatic jacks with a capacity of five tonnes [5.5 tons] each. The main purpose of the operation is to recover the bodies of the victims," Hindarto was quoted by Detik News as saying.
The divers also hope to find the plane's black boxes inside the wreckage, which would provide leads in the ongoing investigation into the causes of the crash, he added.
Earlier on Thursday the divers managed to reach a part of the tail and retrieved small debris, but the operation was suspended due to low visibility.
AirAsia's flight QZ8501, flying to Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia, lost contact with air traffic control on December 28. Of the 162 passengers and crew on the aircraft, 40 bodies have been recovered and 24 have been identified, the head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, Bambang Soelistyo, said at a news conference Wednesday.
