Although he retired from daily reporting on November 5 , 2004 , Hager continued to file occasional reports for NBC News . He returned to the air to help cover the 2006 coal mine disaster in West Virginia . Because of his expertise in aviation accidents , Hager came back again to NBC Nightly News to report on the August 27 , 2006 crash of Comair Flight 5191 and the October 12 , 2006 plane crash that killed Yankees pitcher Corey Lidle . In March 2014 he again returned to NBC to report on the loss of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 . Hager returned to the air again in July 2014 ( on MSNBC ) to provide his expertise and commentary on the shoot down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 , in which 298 people died
Comair Flight 5191
Comair Flight 5191
Robert Hager