The official search for the missing people of the AirAsia plane crash in the Java Sea ends tonight, officials have confirmed.

AirAsia flight 8501 came down on route from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore in December with 162 people on board

106 bodies have been recovered in the months since the crash, with the rest still unaccounted for.

The plane is believed to have been trying to fly over a storm when the accident occurred, with the pilot's last contact to air traffic controllers requesting to divert around bad weather.

Investigators have been examining the jet's black box data recorders, which were recovered in January. They say the pilot seems to have been 'busy with the handling of the plane' in the 'critical situation'.

BBC reports that Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia, told journalists last week that he was satisfied with what rescuers had achieved, but warned the search could not go on indefinitely.

The organisation quotes Bambang Soelistyo, head of Indonesia's rescue agency, as saying that the remaining ships searching for bodies will be pulled out tomorrow.