The ill-fated Dana plane was said to had been under repair for several weeks and the airline's station manager protested its use but the Indian management insisted that it should fly. The German stations are reporting that the plane which crashed should never have taken off because of its write off state and that they are even wondering how the plane made it to Lagos.

From Dana's website, the plane was said to be a "Boeing MD-83". Well, Boeing and MacDonald/Douglas have corroborated from time to time, but according to Wikipedia, no such plane exists. That's really not important. Actually it's not really built by Boeing. It was designed and built by McDonald Douglas and later the company was bought by Boeing.
These airplanes are no longer manufactured and the Chinese have built many of these airplanes on their own. You have to look at how the airplane was maintained and how proficient the flight crew was in its operation.
The MD 80/83 planes have a terrific flight record and also have a high cost of routine maintenance. The American owners opted to sell these planes to developing countries in Africa and Asia cheaply irregardless of its high maintenance standards.
The western world deemed them too expensive to maintain, so they sold them. Does anyone think that aviation mechanics in Nigeria know something that the western world doesn't? I know they do maintain the planes in Nigeria but these planes must get regular maintenance at internationally recognized facilities in order to get landing privileges. Dana's MD83 airplanes were previously owned by Alaska Airlines. Don't forget Alaska had a fatal accident couple of years back over the Pacific ocean due to bad maintenance.

In Essence, in the aviation industry when maintenance and management is in a crash course, destination is almost never guaranteed.


FOOTNOTE> Can we really trust the Indians and Chinese to better manage our industries?