WASHINGTON, May 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Transportation

Secretary Sean Duffy said on Monday air traffic controllers

overseeing planes at Newark lost contact with aircraft for 30

seconds last week.

"The primary communication line went down, the backup line

didn't fire, and so for 30 seconds we lost contact with air

traffic," Duffy told Fox News. "Now were planes going to crash -

no they have communication devices ... But it's a sign that we

have a frail system in place, and it has to be fixed."

Duffy said he plans to unveil a plan on Thursday to seek

billions of dollars from Congress to reform air traffic control

infrastructure and staffing.