Because a military helicopter and a plane crashed in the air in January, and there have been other crashes, officials want to make the air traffic control system better and employ more controllers.

They say this would help keep people safe and stop problems like the ones at the Newark airport last week when the radar stopped working for a short time.

On Thursday, the transportation leader, Sean Duffy, will share a plan that costs a lot of money to make the system for controlling airplanes better.

Also, the FAA is working fast to fix problems with computers and workers at Newark airport so that the same problems do not happen in other places.

When there are problems, one thing is clear: The old system has trouble with the country's more than 45,000 flights every day.

We don't know if Duffy's plan, which President Trump likes, will get enough money from Congress. Duffy says it is needed. A lot of money, over $14 billion, has been spent since 2003, but it hasn't changed how the system works very much.

"We are actively addressing the issue and plan to resolve it. We intend to construct an entirely new system that will benefit all of you, your families, and the American public," Duffy stated.

We don't have many details about the plan. We don't know if private companies will control the air traffic system, like Trump wanted before. Duffy hasn't said this could happen. Many groups will probably come to the announcement on Thursday. They will likely not want private companies to control the system. These groups include worker groups, people from the industry, and families of people who died in the crash in January.

For many years, the system worked quite well, so governments didn't pay much attention to it, said Sheldon Jacobson, a professor who studies dangers in flying. But working quite well is not enough for flying, because people's lives are in danger.

Jacobson doesn't think Duffy's idea will work. But maybe more people will support it after two accidents. In January, a plane hit a helicopter in Washington D.C. Also, another plane turned over and burned in Toronto.

Reports have often shown problems with the country's air traffic control system.

"The system is old and the buildings and roads are old too," said Frank Lorenzo. He used to be the boss of a big airline called Continental Airlines. He helped make Newark a very important airport place. United Airlines still uses it now, many years after buying Continental. "We haven't really taken care of it enough," he said.

The person in charge of air traffic controllers told the government that most airport communication systems use old copper wires. These wires are not as good as newer fiber optic lines. When the old wires have problems, planes often have to stop at airports. This seems to be the reason for the problems in Newark.

On April 28, the system that helps air traffic controllers in Philadelphia guide planes at Newark airport stopped working for about 30 seconds. This system gets information from New York, but some old lines that send this information might have broken. The controllers in Philadelphia use these lines because they moved from New York last summer to help with the number of workers.

The FAA said on Wednesday that they will change old copper wires to new fiber optic cables. They will also add three more data lines between New York and Philadelphia. The FAA is also helping more controllers learn and pass their tests.

We don't know exactly how long these steps will take, but Duffy hopes things in Newark will get better by summer. This is when a runway building project is planned to finish. Some controllers are still not working because they were upset by the radar problem. This made the lack of workers in Philadelphia worse.

Because of this, the FAA is slowing down flights at Newark airport so 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. 42 flights leaving and 46 flights arriving were canceled. This was even after United, an airline, stopped 35 flights every day there starting last weekend.

Since 2003, the FAA has made small changes to make flying safer. One change is a system called ADS-B. This system helps people on the ground and other planes know exactly where aircraft are. People are looking at this system because the Black Hawk helicopter in the January crash was not using it to show its location when the accident happened.

Duffy has also tried to hire air traffic controllers faster and help students pass their training. The FAA is also giving extra money to experienced controllers so they stay longer.

It is hard to make the system for planes better because the people in charge must keep the old system working while they build a new one. Then they need to change to the new system without problems. This is why they have made changes slowly before.

This problem has been here for a long time. It's hard to fix, not because people didn't try. Jeff Guzetti said this. He used to check accidents and worked for a government office that looked at airplanes. He said, "They need money and good people to lead. The FAA has not had enough money and sometimes not good leaders for a long time."