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.