(CNN) -- Capt. Tadeusz Wrona still has trouble sleeping. The night after executing a spectacular belly landing in Poland, the veteran pilot tossed and turned until 4 a.m. The phone kept ringing, he told Polish media, and he kept reliving the chilling moments when his crew and passengers came close to a disaster. Now basking in his nation's adoration and fielding countless interview requests, Wrona is resting even less, he said with a weary smile. Wrona, who has worked for LOT Polish Airlines for 20 years, was at the controls of a Boeing 767 en route from Newark, New Jersey, to Warsaw on Tuesday when he realized there was a problem with the landing gear.
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Pilot who executed a textbook belly landing in Poland is being hailed as national hero
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Tadeusz Wrona has worked for LOT Polish Airlines for 20 years
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"I finally felt full relief only when the purser reported that the cabin was empty," he says
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Wrona says he's flown the Boeing 767 about 500 times and never had any trouble
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"I've maybe flown this plane 500 times, and the landing gear deployed every time," Wrona said during a news conference in @placeholder on Wednesday.