US air traffic controllers will be offered chance to stay on for longer, says Duffy

U.S. air traffic controllers will be offered the opportunity to stay past their mandatory retirement age of 56, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News on Thursday in the wake of the Washington plane crash.

"I can offer them the chance to stay longer past the mandatory retirement age of 56, pay them more...make the system safer, alleviate the pressure on the controllers."

Duffy said the offer would be made in the coming days.

The collision over the Potomac River in Washington between an army helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet killed 67 people last week. It was the deadliest U.S. air disaster in more than 20 years.