New | ‘Don’t blame my father,’ AirAsia captain’s daughter pleads as search for crashed plane widens

The daughter of AirAsia flight QZ8501's captain made a televised plea urging people not to blame her father over the tragedy, as searchers resumed hunting for the wreckage and black boxes that would reveal why the plane crashed.

“He is just a victim and has not been found yet. My family is now mourning,” said Angela Anggi Ranastianis, daughter of Indonesia AirAsia pilot Captain Iriyanto.

“As a daughter, I cannot accept it. No pilot will harm his passengers,” she told TV One. When news broke of the plane's disappearance last month, the girl posted on social media: "Papa, come back. I still need you."

In his last communication, experienced former air force pilot Iriyanto said he wanted to change course to avoid the menacing storm system - then all contact was lost about 40 minutes after take-off.

Indonesian navy divers took advantage of calmer waters today to resume efforts to identify suspected wreckage from the missing AirAsia jet after five large objects were spotted on sonar.

But there was with no signal detected yet from the black box recorders as the search entered its eighth day.