The UK is taking part in the search for victims of Air Asia flight QZ8501, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office has announced.

FCO confirmed earlier that a British national was on the flight and that the family had been informed.

The AirAsia plane crashed in the sea off Indonesia with 162 people on board on Sunday while it was en route from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to

Singapore.

“Following the offer by the British government to assist in the search for missing Air Asia flight QZ8501, an investigator from the UK's Air Accident

Investigation Branch (AAIB) is now helping with the search for the plane's flight recorders," Moazzam Malik British ambassador to Indonesia said in

a statement distributed by FCO.

The Indonesian authorities said the air and sea search for the victims of the plane has resumed on Wednesday.

However, the head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency said later that recovery efforts were being hindered by bad weather.

Malik said the AAIB investigator has joined Singaporean experts to assist the Indonesian operation.

“They hope to reach the search area on an Indonesian naval vessel as soon as possible,” he added.

According the British diplomat, the British investigator is carrying specialist technical equipment that can help locate the flight recorders.

The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch is well-known for its long experience, expertise and technical equipment that can help locate flight

recorders underwater.

The British government hopes its assistance can help the Indonesian authorities locate the black box of crashed plane quickly.

An FCO statement confirmed that the UK stands ready to help with the additional investigations if necessary.

Divers are expected to search in the relatively shallow waters for more bodies, and plane's black box, at the site of an underwater shadow

thought to be that of the aircraft.

Six bodies have been retrieved from the Java Sea so far.