Bodies of the victims are being flown back to Surabaya after being recovered from the Java SeaBad weather was the biggest factor in the crash of AirAsia flight QZ8501, the Indonesian weather agency believes.
The BMKG agency said initial analysis suggested icy conditions in the air had caused the engine to stall.
The Airbus A320 vanished with 162 people aboard en route from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore last Sunday.
The discovery of four large objects believed to be plane debris has raised hopes of finding the fuselage, where most bodies are believed to be trapped.
Just 30 bodies had been recovered from the Java Sea as of Saturday morning.
The plane's black boxes, its flight data and cockpit voice recorders, have yet to be located.
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes says search is still being hampered by bad weather
BMKG found conditions at the time of the plane's disappearance suggested it had probably flown into a storm.
"From our data it looks like the last location of the plane had very bad weather and it was the biggest factor behind the crash," said Edvin Aldrian, head of research at BMKG.
"These icy conditions can stall the engines of the plane and freeze and damage the planes machinery."
Officials have said the plane was travelling at 32,000ft when the pilot's last communication was a request to climb to 38,000ft to avoid bad weather.
Meiji Thejakusuma is one of the few victims to have been positively identified
The mother of victim Hendra Gunawan Syawal prayed by her son's coffin in Surabaya
The search teams have recovered 30 bodies from the Java Sea despite tough weather conditions
Victims in body bags were hoisted aboard a warship
Russian search teams arrived aboard a Beriev Be-200 amphibious aircraftHigh waves
Search chief Bambang Soelistyo said four large objects as well as oil slicks had been detected by sonar.
The biggest object is 18m (59ft) long and 5.4m wide, he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency, adding he believed the objects were parts of the plane. Another object is said to be 10m long.
Mr Soelistyo said an ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle) was being lowered into the water to get an actual picture of the objects, which were at a depth of 30m.
But he warned that waves up to five metres high were hampering the search effort.
Captain John Noble, a marine salvage consultant, told the BBC the fact the wreckage was 30m down would help search teams.
"It is very dive-able," he told the News Channel. "It is easy to get equipment down there."
