The United Arab Emirates’ General Civil Aviation Authority has banned a widely used cargo aircraft from UAE airspace, citing safety concerns. A number of recent accidents involving the Antonov An-12, a four-engine turboprop plane, prompting the authority to blacklist the plane last week. The An-12 has a range of more than 3,000 km and can carry a payload of 20 tonnes. About a half-dozen small carriers in the UAE use the Soviet-era aircraft to carry goods such as medicine and food to destinations in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. An estimated three dozen An-12s are regularly flown to and from airports in Dubai, Sharjah, Ras al Khaimah and Fujairah. A fax message sent by the civil aviation authority to air-cargo companies and airports on Thursday listed four recent incidents. On 2 January, an An-12 veered off a runway as it was taking off from Sharjah International Airport. The authority¡¯s notice also cited incidents in Sharjah on 24 October and 6 January. Seven people died when an An-12 crashed near Fallujah, Iraq, in November last year.