Iran to probe black boxes after missile blamed for plane crash

DUBAI (Reuters) – Tehran said on Friday it wanted to download black box recordings itself from a Ukrainian airliner crash that killed all 176 people aboard, amid Western suspicions the plane was brought down by an Iranian missile, probably by mistake. The crash has heightened international pressure on Iran after months of friction with the United States and tit-for-tat military strikes. Washington killed an Iranian general last week in Iraq, prompting Tehran to fire at U.S. targets. Iran, which denies the Boeing 737-800 (BA.N) was downed by a missile, showed the voice and flight data recorders on state TV on Friday but said it could take a month or two to extract data. Later in the day, the semi-official Fars news agency reported that on Saturday Iran would announce the reason for the crash, citing an informed source. The announcement will be made after a meeting of an Iranian commission focused on air accidents, Fars said, but it gave no further details.