TASS - The flight data recorders of the Ukrainian plane, which was shot down due to human error by the Iranian armed forces near Tehran, will be sent for decoding to France, the chief of the air incidents investigation board of Iran�s Civil Aviation Organization Hassan Rezaiefar said.

"Flight data recorders of the Ukrainian plane will be sent to France," he was quoted as saying by the IRNA news agency on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the IRIB broadcast corporation reported on Saturday with reference to a source in Iran�s Civil Aviation Organization familiar with the matter, that the final decision on sending the recorders abroad had not been taken yet.

On January 8, a plane operated by Ukraine International Airlines crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran�s Imam Khomeini International Airport. According to the data provided by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristaiko, 176 people were killed in the crash. They were citizens of Iran, Canada, Ukraine, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and the UK.

On Saturday morning, Iran�s General Staff said in a statement that the plane had been shot down due to human error. The plane had flown in close proximity to one of the most important military facilities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the statement said.