After a bad crash in the air between a military helicopter and a passenger plane in January, and a few other crashes, the government wants to fix the old system for controlling planes and hire more people to do it.

They say this would help keep people safe and stop the problems that have caused trouble for the Newark airport since its radar stopped working for a short time last week.

On Thursday, the transport boss, Sean Duffy, will show a big plan to make the system for guiding planes better. The people who look after flying, the FAA, are trying to fix computer and worker problems in one city, Newark, so that these problems do not happen in other places.

It is clear that the old system has problems managing the country's more than 45,000 daily flights.

We are not sure if Duffy's plan, which President Trump likes, will get enough money from Congress. This money is needed for the plan to work better than plans from the last 30 years. But Duffy says it is needed. Since 2003, more than $14 billion has been spent on improvements, but these have not really changed how the system works.

We are actively addressing the issue and plan to resolve it. We intend to construct a completely new system that will benefit you, your families, and the American public, Duffy stated.

But we don't have many details. We don't know if the plan will sell the air traffic system to private companies. Trump wanted to do this before. Duffy has not said this might happen. Many unions will probably come to the announcement on Thursday. They will likely be against selling control. Groups of businesses, people from the industry, and families of people who died in the crash in January will also be there.

Professor Sheldon Jacobson from the University of Illinois said the system worked okay for many years, so governments didn't pay much attention to it. But he said that working okay is not enough for flying because it is dangerous and people could die.

Jacobson doesn't think Duffy's idea will work. But maybe more people will support it after the accidents in Washington D.C. and Toronto.

For many years, reports have shown the problems with the country's system for controlling airplanes. Recently, a government report in March said that many of the systems the FAA uses were not working well or might have problems. Also, in 2023, a problem with one of the FAA's systems made all planes in the country stop flying for more than two hours.

Frank Lorenzo, who used to be in charge of Continental Airlines, said, "Our system is old and our buildings are old." He helped start a big airport center in Newark that United Airlines still uses. He also said, "We haven't given it the care it needs."

The head of the air traffic controllers told the government that the FAA's communication systems in many places use old copper wires, not better fiber lines. When these old wires break, flights at airports often stop, and this seems to have caused the problems in Newark.

A system used by people who control planes in Philadelphia to help planes fly in and out of Newark airport stopped working for at least 30 seconds on April 28. This system needs information sent from New York. Some of the lines that send this information are old phone lines. The people controlling planes in Newark moved from New York to Philadelphia last summer because they needed more workers.

The FAA said they will change the old copper wires to new ones made of glass. These are called fiber optics. They will also add three new lines to send information between New York and Philadelphia. The FAA is also training more people to control the planes.

We don't know exactly how long these things will take, but Mr. Duffy hopes things in Newark will be better by summer. A project to build a runway should finish then. Some air traffic controllers are still away from work because of the radar problem, so there are fewer workers in Philadelphia.

Because of this, the FAA has fewer flights at Newark airport so that they can be safe. This means some flights are canceled. The FAA will also talk to airlines to see how many flights the airport can manage. On Wednesday, Newark had the most canceled flights in the country. This happened even though United had already stopped 35 flights there every day since last weekend.

The FAA has made small improvements since 2003 with their Nextgen plan. One improvement is the ADS-B system. This system helps air traffic controllers and other planes know exactly where aircraft are. This system is important in the investigation of the January crash because the helicopter was not using it to show its location when the accident happened.

Duffy wants to hire more air traffic controllers quickly. He is making the training shorter and helping more students finish. The FAA is also giving extra money to controllers who have worked for a long time so they do not stop working too early.

It is difficult to make the system for airplanes better because the FAA must keep the old system working while they build a new one. Then, they need to change to the new system easily. This is why they have made small improvements before.

This problem has been here for many years. It's not because people ignored it, but because it's hard to fix," said Jeff Guzetti. He used to check accidents and worked for the government on planes. "It needs money and good leaders. And the FAA has not had enough money or good leaders for a long time.