Because of a serious crash in January between a military helicopter and a plane, and other crashes since then, officials are now working to improve the country's old air traffic control system and hire more controllers.

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

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will announce a multi-billion-dollar plan 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 staffing problems in Newark and stop similar problems from happening in other places.

In this difficult time, one thing is clear: An old system has trouble managing the country's more than 45,000 flights each day.

It's not clear if Duffy's plan, which President Donald Trump supports, will get enough money from Congress to work better than earlier tries to change things over the past 30 years. But Duffy thinks it is important. Since 2003, over $14 billion has been spent on making things better, but these changes haven't really made the system work differently.

"We are working on it," Duffy said. "We plan to fix it and create a completely new system for everyone, including you, your families, and all Americans."

However, there are not many details. It is not clear if the plan will privatize the air traffic control system, which Trump supported in his first term. Duffy has not talked about this possibility. The announcement on Thursday is expected to bring together many unions, who would probably be against privatization, as well as trade groups, people from the industry, and families of the victims of the crash in January.

Professor Sheldon Jacobson from the University of Illinois, who studies risks in flying, said the system worked well for many years, so governments did not pay much attention to it. He also said, "But working well is not good enough for air travel because people's lives are in danger."

Jacobson isn't sure if Duffy's idea will work. However, there might be more support for it after the crash between a plane and a helicopter in Washington D.C. and another plane accident in Toronto.

Reports and meetings have for many years shown the problems with the country's air traffic control system. For example, a report in March said that 51 out of 138 systems were not working well and another 54 might stop working well. Also, in 2023, a problem with the system that sends information to pilots caused all flights in the US to stop for over two hours.

"We're using an old system and have old infrastructure," said Frank Lorenzo, who used to be the head of Continental Airlines. He helped set up a large airport hub in Newark that United Airlines still uses today, many years after buying Continental. "We haven't really given it the attention it needs."

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

The radar system used by air traffic controllers in Philadelphia to guide planes at Newark airport stopped working for at least 30 seconds on April 28. This system needs information from New York, which might not have been sent correctly. This could be because of old copper phone lines. The FAA uses these lines because the Newark controllers were moved from New York to Philadelphia last summer to help with not having enough staff.

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

It was not clear how long these two things would take, but Duffy hopes the problems in Newark will get better by summer, when a runway building project will finish. Some controllers are still off work because of stress after the radar stopped working, which made the lack of staff in Philadelphia worse.

Because of this, the FAA has reduced the number of flights at Newark airport to keep them safe, which has caused some flights to be cancelled. The FAA will also talk to airlines to see how many flights the airport can manage. On Wednesday, Newark had the most cancelled flights in the country, with 42 leaving and 46 arriving, according to FlightAware.com. This happened even though United had already cut 35 flights a day at the airport since last weekend.

Since 2003, the FAA has been making small improvements to its systems through a program called Nextgen. One important improvement is the ADS-B system. This system helps air traffic controllers and other planes know where aircraft are exactly. The investigation into the January crash is focusing on this system because the Black Hawk helicopter was not using it to show its location when the crash happened.

Duffy has also tried to improve hiring air traffic controllers by making the training shorter and helping more students pass. The FAA is also giving extra money to experienced controllers so they don't leave their jobs early.

Improving the system for airplanes is difficult because the FAA has to keep the old one working while they build a new one, and then change to the new system without problems. This is part of the reason why the agency has made changes more slowly in the past.

Jeff Guzetti, who used to investigate accidents and worked for the Transportation Department, said the problem has been around for a long time. He explained it's not because people ignored it, but because it's a hard problem to fix. He also said it needs money and good management, and the FAA hasn't had enough of either for years.