Dubai The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority has banned all Ukranian-built Antonov An-12 aircraft from its airspace, officials said yesterday.
Operators of the aircraft in this country were alerted to the ban on February 12 and they have until March 1 to relocate.
Esmail Mohammad Al Beloushi, director of aviation safety at the GCAA, told reporters in Dubai yesterday that a technical audit of the Antonov Design Bureau was conducted last December and the results were not positive.
"The design bureau was not doing due diligence in terms of safety measures of its aircraft. They [An-12s] cannot be considered safe to operate," Al Beloushi said.
The An-12 had become a priority issue because of its high rate of movement in the UAE and concerns about its airworthiness.
The Ukrainian design organisation under the scanner had almost doubled the intended life of the aircraft and could not ensure that safety parameters met international standards, he said.
The UAE saw 1,511 movements by An-12 aircraft last year and about half of these were overflights.
This year, 24 aircraft were operated in UAE airspace and movements of the plane have fallen considerably since the civil authority communicated its concerns about the aircraft to its operators.
Soviet-era plane
The UAE currently has four operators of the banned aircraft, and there are 900 operating internationally. Since last year, 16 An-12 and four An-26 were banned by the GCAA.
"Soon we will be looking at other models, and we will be talking to other manufacturers," Al Beloushi said.
The aged Soviet-era aircraft is a popular cargo plane because of its low operating cost and its ability to land under difficult conditions.
However, a string of accidents around the world has led many countries to ban the aircraft.
The GCAA temporarily banned the aircraft last year after an An-12 skidded off the runway at Sharjah International Airport. Two other minor incidents and a crash in Iraq also occurred, but no modifications or upgrades were made.
"Whenever an accident happens, it's the responsibility of the manufacturer to update the aircraft or modify it accordingly," Al Beloushi said.
Meanwhile, aircraft registered in five countries will not be allowed in UAE airspace.
They are Swaziland, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of Sao Tome and Principe.
