After a serious crash between a military helicopter and a passenger plane in January, and other accidents since then, officials are focusing on fixing the country's old air traffic control system and hiring more controllers.

They believe this would make things safer and stop the issues that have affected the Newark airport since its radar system stopped working for a short time last week.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will show a plan for billions of dollars to improve the country's air traffic control system on Thursday. At the same time, the Federal Aviation Administration is working to quickly fix technology and staff problems in Newark and stop similar problems from happening in other places.

In this difficult situation, one thing is clear: The old system struggles to manage the country's more than 45,000 daily flights.

It's not certain if Duffy's plan, which President Donald Trump supports, will get the money from Congress it needs. This is to make it work better than similar plans in the last thirty years. But Duffy says it is needed. Since 2003, over $14 billion has been spent on improvements, but these have not really changed how the system works.

Duffy stated, "We are working on it. We will repair it. We will create a completely new system for all of you, your families, and the American people."

But there aren't many details. We don't know if the plan will privatize the air traffic control system, which Trump supported in his first term. Duffy hasn't talked about this possibility. The announcement on Thursday is expected to bring together many unions, who will probably be against privatization, as well as trade groups, people from the industry, and families of those who died in the crash in January.

Sheldon Jacobson, a professor at the University of Illinois who studies flight safety, said that for many years, the system worked quite well, so governments mostly ignored it. But he also said that 'working quite well is not enough for air travel, because people's lives are at risk.'

Jacobson isn't sure Duffy's idea will work. But it could get more support after a plane hit a helicopter in Washington D.C. in January, and another plane caught fire in Toronto.

For many years, reports and meetings have pointed out the problems in the country's air traffic control system. A recent government report in March said that 51 out of 138 systems used by the FAA (which manages air travel) were not working well and would not last, and another 54 might also not last. In 2023, a problem with the FAA's warning system for pilots stopped all flights across the country for more than two hours.

Frank Lorenzo, who used to be the head of Continental Airlines, said the system and infrastructure were old and needed more attention.

The head of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association told Congress that most of the FAA's communication systems at over 4,600 places still use old copper wires. These wires are not as good as newer fiber optic cables that can carry more information. Problems with the old wires often cause delays at airports and seem to have caused the issues in Newark.

The radar system that air traffic controllers in Philadelphia use to help planes at Newark airport stopped working for at least 30 seconds on April 28. This system gets its radar information through lines from New York, which might have failed. Some of these lines are old copper phone lines. The FAA uses these lines because the controllers who work with Newark planes moved from New York to Philadelphia last summer to solve problems with not having enough staff.

The FAA said on Wednesday that they will replace old copper wires with fiber optics and add three new data lines between New York and Philadelphia. The agency is also training and certifying more controllers.

It wasn't clear how long these steps would take, but Duffy hopes things in Newark will get better by summer. That's when a project to build a runway is planned to finish. Some controllers are still on long leave after the radar problem, which made it harder to find enough staff in Philadelphia.

Because of this, the FAA has reduced the number of flights at Newark Airport to make sure everything is safe, which has caused flights to be canceled. The FAA will also talk with all airlines to find out how many flights the airport can manage. On Wednesday, Newark had the most canceled flights in the country, with 42 flights leaving and 46 flights arriving that were canceled. This happened even though United had already stopped 35 daily flights at the airport last weekend.

The FAA has been making small improvements to air traffic control since 2003 with a program called Nextgen. One important improvement is the ADS-B system. This system shows the exact location of planes to air traffic controllers and other planes. The system is a key part of the investigation into the January crash because the helicopter involved was not using it to show its location when the crash happened.

Duffy has also tried to make it faster to hire air traffic controllers. He did this by making the time to get into the training academy shorter and helping more students pass. The FAA is also paying extra money to experienced controllers so they don't retire too soon.

A big problem with improving air travel systems is that the FAA has to keep the old system working while they create a new one. After that, they need to switch to the new system without any problems. This is partly why the agency has made smaller changes over time.

Jeff Guzetti, who used to investigate accidents and worked for the Transportation Department, said, "This problem has been here for many years. It's not because people didn't pay attention, but because it's a difficult problem to fix. It needs money and good management. And the FAA has not had enough money or good management for a long time."