On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Patrick Harten, the air traffic controller who was on duty the day US Airways Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson, spoke about the event publicly for the first time. He told members of the House Subcommittee on Aviation that when he heard Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger tell him, "We're gonna be in the Hudson," he asked him to repeat himself, even though he heard him just fine. "I simply could not wrap my mind around those words," Harten said calmly. "People don't survive landings on the Hudson River, and I thought this was a death sentence. I believed at that moment, I was going to be the last person to talk to anyone on that plane alive." Harten said that during the emergency itself, he was hyper-focused. "I had no choice but to think and act quickly, and remain calm. But when it was over, it hit me hard. It felt like hours before I learned about the heroic water landing that Captain Sullenberger and his crew had managed. Even after I learned the truth, I could not shake the image of tragedy in my mind. ... I felt like I had been hit by a bus." Harten will return to work later this week for the first time since the ditching.