JAKARTA, Jan. 20 -- Indonesia said here Tuesday that the crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501 climbed at an abnormally high rate and plunged suddenly before disappearing from radar.

Addressing the Parliament, Indonesian Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan said " it is not normal to climb like that. It is very rare for commercial planes which normally climb just 1,000 to 2,000 feet per minute."

"It can only be done by a fighter jet," the transport minister added.

What caused the flight to climb too fast remained unknown now.

Flight QZ8501, with 162 people onboard, plummeted into the Java Sea near the Karimata Strait during its journey from Surabaya to Singapore on Dec. 28.

The flight data and cockpit voice recorders, known as black boxes, have been recovered and they are vital to determining the cause of the crash.