The link referred by testpanel a few posts back seems to come from a Spanair maintenance technician (possibly the one that disconnected the RAT probe heater?) and basically it just says what we all know. In my own words, but inspired from his article, his main points are:
-That airplanes are very well maintained by licensed and qualified personnel.
-That a ton of inspections are carried out daily, weekly, monthly ...
-That just about all planes from all airlines have (minor, not affecting flight capability) maintenance issues which repairs are routinely delayed a bit to avoid late flights.
-That he is very wary of the press for putting out so much missinformation.