After a deadly crash between a military helicopter and a plane in January, and other crashes later, officials are now working to improve the country's old air traffic control system and hire more controllers.

They say this would help keep things safe and avoid the problems that have affected the airport in Newark, New Jersey, since its radar system stopped working for a short time last week.

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

In this difficult situation, one thing is clear: an old system has trouble managing the country's more than 45,000 daily flights.

It's not clear if Duffy's plan, which President Donald Trump supports, will get enough money from Congress to work better than past attempts over the last 30 years. But Duffy thinks it's important. Since 2003, more than $14 billion has been spent on improvements, but they haven't really changed how the system works.

"We are dealing with this," Duffy stated. "We will solve the problem and create a completely new system for everyone, including your families and the American people."

However, there is not much information available. It is not known if the plan will include making the air traffic control system private, which Trump supported before. Duffy has not mentioned this idea. Many groups, like unions, trade groups, industry representatives, and families affected by the crash in January, are expected to react to Thursday's announcement, and unions would probably be against making the system private.

Sheldon Jacobson, a professor at the University of Illinois who studies risks in flying, said that for many years, the system worked well enough that different governments mostly ignored it. He also said, "But 'well enough' is not good enough for flying, because people's lives are in danger."

Jacobson doesn't think Duffy's idea will work. But people might support it more after the crash between an American Airlines plane and an Army helicopter over Washington D.C. in January, and a plane that turned over and caught fire in Toronto.

For many years, reports and meetings have shown the problems with the country's air traffic control system. Recently, a government report in March said that 51 out of 138 systems were not expected to last, and another 54 might also have problems. In 2023, a failure in a system used to inform pilots stopped all flights across the country for over two hours.

Former CEO Frank Lorenzo said, "The system we use is old-fashioned, and our buildings and equipment are not modern." He also said, "We haven't really paid enough attention to it."

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

The radar system that air traffic controllers in Philadelphia use to guide planes at Newark Airport stopped working for at least 30 seconds on April 28. This system gets radar information from New York, possibly through old phone lines that might have broken. The FAA uses these lines because the controllers who work with Newark planes were moved from New York to Philadelphia last summer to help with not having enough staff.

The FAA announced on Wednesday that they will change old copper wires to fiber optic cables and put in three new data lines between New York and Philadelphia. The agency is also training more air traffic controllers so they can do the job.

We don't know exactly how long these steps will take, but Duffy hopes the situation in Newark will improve by summer. This is when a runway construction project is planned to finish. Some controllers are still on long leave after the radar problem, which made the staff shortage in Philadelphia worse.

The FAA has reduced flights at Newark Airport to safely manage traffic, causing cancellations. The FAA will also meet with airlines to decide how many flights the airport can manage. On Wednesday, Newark had the most canceled flights in the country, according to FlightAware.com. This happened even after one airline, United, had already reduced 35 flights per day from last weekend.

Since 2003, the FAA has slowly improved its air traffic control system with the Nextgen program. A key improvement is the ADS-B system. This system helps controllers and other planes know the exact position of an aircraft. The ADS-B system is important in the investigation of the January crash because the helicopter in the crash was not using it to share its location when the accident happened.

Duffy has also tried to make it quicker to hire air traffic controllers. He did this by making the training shorter and helping more students finish successfully. The FAA is also giving extra payments to experienced controllers so they don't retire early.

A big problem with improving air travel systems is that the organization in charge has to keep the old system working while they build a new one. After that, they need to find a way to switch to the new system without problems. This is one reason they have made changes more slowly before.

Jeff Guzetti, who used to investigate accidents and worked for the Transportation Department, said the problem has been here for a long time and is hard to fix. He explained it's not because people didn't care, but because it needs money and good planning. He also mentioned that the FAA hasn't had enough money or good leaders for many years.