Overhaul of the troubled US air traffic control system will revolutionize the industry, Trump says

Amid information concerns from a spate of level crashes and adjacent misses, President Donald Trump said Thursday that a planned monolithic overhaul of the U.S. aerial postulation power strategy volition revolutionize flying.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was expected to uncover details of the multibillion-dollar program Thursday day pursuing caller deadly crashes and technical failures that person enactment a spotlight connected the outdated network.

The president said that the U.S. was successful the marketplace to bargain a “gorgeous, marque caller system.”

“The caller instrumentality is unbelievable what it does,” helium said from the Oval Office. He began to accidental it whitethorn adjacent alleviate the request for pilots earlier adding, “In my opinion, you ever request pilots. But you wouldn’t adjacent person to person pilots. This strategy is truthful unthinkable what they tin do.”

The aging aerial postulation power operations and its struggles to grip much than 45,000 regular flights person travel nether renewed scrutiny since the midair collision successful January betwixt a subject chopper and a commercialized airliner that killed 67 radical implicit Washington, D.C.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee estimated past week that it mightiness outgo $12.5 cardinal to overhaul the aerial postulation power system, but that estimation was developed earlier the Transportation Department revealed the details of its plan, truthful it's not wide if that fig is reasonable.

Following January's crash, Trump promised to fix what helium called “an old, breached system” and to tackle the nationwide shortage of aerial postulation controllers portion blaming the erstwhile Biden medication for some problems. He repeated those claims Thursday.

But the weaknesses wrong the aerial postulation power strategy person been known for galore years and highlighted successful hearings earlier Congress and authorities reports. The information that the aerial postulation power strategy was struggling to support up with expanding aerial postulation was recognized successful the 1990s — agelong earlier either Trump oregon Biden took office.

The Trump administration’s overhaul program volition request backing from Congress and capable backing to beryllium much effectual than erstwhile betterment efforts during the past 3 decades. Already much than $14 cardinal has been invested successful upgrades since 2003 but nary person dramatically changed however the strategy works.

The shortage of controllers and method breakdowns came to the forefront successful caller weeks erstwhile a radar strategy concisely failed astatine the Newark, New Jersey, airport, starring to a question of formation cancellations and delays.

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Associated Press newsman Will Weissert successful Washington contributed.