Three big domestic passenger plane crashes, killing more than 300 people in the last year, have raised serious questions about Nigeria’s air safety and its ability to turn itself into an important hub for air travel in West Africa and beyond. Africa’s most populous country has seen air travel double in the last seven years to more than 8m passengers a year, but poor infrastructure, a meddling aviation ministry, corruption and corner cutting have held back that dream. Last year, aeroplanes from Bellview and Sosoliso, two well-used airlines, crashed killing more than 200 people. Last month, an ADC Airlines plane, another popular Nigerian carrier, crashed shortly after take- off, killing another 100. Even the military has been affected by aviation woes; 10 top generals died in a military plane crash in September.

Nigerian aviation officials tend to identify specific reasons for the disasters, such as bad weather, poor runway lighting or crew incompetence. But Roland Iyayi, director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, says the disasters highlight “systemic failures” in the country’s aviation sector. In the case of the Bellview crash, officials could not locate the crash site for 15 hours. In the Sosoliso crash, scores of people are alleged to have died because of a lack of airport fire hydrant facilities.