AirAsia to pay $100,000 compensation to families of each QZ8501 victim as search teams say they will find the black box TODAY

• $US100,000 will be offered as compensation to families of QZ8501 victims
• It comes after they were offered $US24,000, with some declining the offer
• Searchers of the plane believe they have found aircraft's tail on Wednesday
• So far 40 bodies have been found, with 122 people still yet to be recovered

By Louise Cheer for Daily Mail Australia Follow @@Louise_Cheer and Associated Press

Published: 23:39 EST, 7 January 2015 | Updated: 00:15 EST, 8 January 2015

The families of the victims of AirAsia flight QZ8501 will be offered $US100,000 in compensation by the airline as those searching for the plane claim they are just hours away from finding the plane's black box.

It follows an offer of $US24,000 after family members were given a draft letter from AirAsia, which detailed its initial compensation deal,CNN reported.

Flight QZ8501 crashed over the Java Sea just 40 minutes after it left Surabaya Airport on December 28.

Australian experts have flown into Indonesia to help identify the victims of the AirAsia QZ8501 flight

Other countries that have provided assistance include Singapore, South Korean, United Arab Emirates and Malaysia

There were 162 people on board the flight, so far only 40 bodies have been recovered with more expected to be found in the plane's fuselage which lies at the bottom of the sea, off the coast of the Indonesian island of Borneo.

Of the 162 people on board, 155 were passengers while others were pilots and crew members.

No survivors have been recovered since the search for the plane began 11 days ago.

Family members have been left confused about the letter's wording and raising issue with the airline approaching families separately in relation to compensation, the Wall Street Journal reported.

But Indonesia AirAsia's director of safety and security defended the isolated discussions to The Strait Times on Tuesday, saying: 'We respect that [some] families are still hoping to see that their relatives survived, so we offered [compensation first] to those whose family members have been identified'.

Captain Raden Achmad Sadikin added the airlines would be compensating families in line with Indonesian policy.

According to the regulatory body that is responsible for Indonesia's finance sector, agencies that insure airlines were liable to give 1.25 billion rupiah for every one of the 155 passengers including 315 million rupiah to 750 million rupiah for the 25 passengers who bought flight insurance.

So far 40 bodies have been recovered from the Java Sea. Families of victims have been offered compensation

They have been offered $US100,000 after they were initially offered $US24,000 by the airline

This news comes as searchers are hopeful they will recover the plane's black box on Thursday after finding the aircraft's tail the day before.

Bad weather conditions have hampered the search, which has prevented divers from confirming the object in the water is in fact the tail, according to the Singapore-based news website.

It is thought the black box and voice recorders were inside the end of the plane.

The search area for bodies and debris was expanded this week to allow for the strong currents that have been pushing debris around, Indonesian search and rescue operation coordinator Tatang Zainudin said.

The water in the Java Sea is relatively shallow, about 30 meters deep, but this is the worst time of year for a recovery operation because of monsoon rains and wind that create choppy seas and blinding silt from river run-off.

On Wednesday, searchers looking for the plane say they believe they have found the aircraft's tail

Along with the tail, the fuselage is thought to be with it, off the coast of the Indonesian island of Borneo

The black box is thought to be inside the tail. It will help shed some light on the last moments of the flight before it crashed

But in some ways, it is easier to find a missing plane compared to the extreme depths of the Indian Ocean, where searchers continue to hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared last March with 239 people aboard.

'Because the Java Sea is such an enclosed basin, and there's not really big currents passing through it, everything just stays there for quite a while and the waves make it so that the sediment doesn't slowly sink to the bottom,' Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at Sydney's University of New South Wales, said.

'It continuously keeps churning it up.'

Dr van Sebille said the conditions also make it particularly dangerous for divers because the water is dark and murky, making it easy for them to cut themselves on jagged wreckage or become snared and trapped. During the dry season, he added, it would likely be easy to see the plane underwater from the sky.

Searchers remain hopeful the recovery of the tail would happen sometime on Thursday

Indonesina Sea and Coast Guards display recovered seats from the AirAsia flight QZ8501 on Tuesday

National Search and Rescue Agency personnel carry wrecked seats from the AirAsia plane to land

Indonesia Sea and Coast Guard carries remains of seats from the Royal Malaysian Navy KD Kasturi at Port of Kumai on January 6

As the cause of the incident remains a mystery, the find would shed light on what happened during the final moments of the QZ8501 flight.

But The Indonesian meteorological agency said weather was the 'triggering factor' of the crash in the Java Sea, with ice likely damaging the engines of the Airbus A320-200.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Indroyono Soesilo told reporters the black box would be analysed by experts in Indonesia when it was located.

It will provide essential information about the plane along with final conversations between the captain and co-pilot.

The ping-emitting beacons still have about 20 days before their batteries go dead, but high waves had prevented the deployment of ships that drag 'ping' locators.

Sonar-equipped ships involved in the massive international hunt have identified what they believe to be the fuselage of the plane in recent days.

Five other big objects have been found on the floor of the ocean, though no visual confirmation has been obtained yet

Five other big objects have been found on the floor of the ocean, though no visual confirmation has been obtained yet. Smaller pieces of the plane, such as seats and an emergency door, have been collected from the surface.

Tony Fernandes, AirAsia's chief executive officer, welcomed the news.

If it is the right part of the tail section, he tweeted, then the cockpit voice and flight data recorders, or black boxes, 'should be there'.

He said the airline's priority still is to recover all the bodies 'to ease the pain of our families'.

One released image appeared to show an upside down 'A'' painted on a piece of metal, while another grainy shot depicted some mechanical parts.

So far, 40 corpses have been found, including an additional one announced Wednesday, but time is running out.

At two weeks, most corpses will sink, said Anton Castilani, head of Indonesia's disaster identification victim unit, and there are already signs of serious decomposition.

Officials are hopeful many of the more than 122 bodies still unaccounted for will be found inside the fuselage, which is believed to be lying near the tail.

Just before losing contact, the pilot told air traffic control he was approaching threatening clouds, but was denied permission to climb to a higher altitude because of heavy air traffic. No distress signal was issued.