joining us now, longtime nbc news aviation correspondent, robert hager, mr. hager has been an on the ground reporter in passenger jet disasters including pan am over lockerbie. mr. hager, thank you for being with us tonight. >> sure, rachel. by the way, i covered both the soviet shoot-down of the korean passenger plane, as well as the iranian airbus that got shot down. >> when you look back at the history of these and put them on one of these terrible timelines, it is remarkable that there have been so many given that every time it happens, it sort of feels like the end of the world. is, i mean, is there any -- >> it's unbelievable. >> is there anything normal that we can say normally happens for things like this? >> no. i mean, it's just completely abnormal. when you list different kinds of things that cause air accidents, you're thinking weather, pilot error, navigation errors. shoot-down over a military conflict, zone of a military conflict, highly, highly unusual, but sadly, in that list you enumerated so, so well, you know, it has happened too often. >>

joining us now, longtime nbc news aviation correspondent, robert hager, mr.the ground reporter in passenger jet disasters including pan am over lockerbie. mr. hager, thank you for being with us tonight. >> sure, rachel. by the way, i covered both the soviet shoot-down of the korean passenger plane, as well as the iranian airbus that got shot down. >> when you look back at the history of these and put them on one of these terrible timelines, it is remarkable that there have been so many given that every time it happens, it sort of feels like the end of the world. is, i mean, is there any -- >> it's unbelievable. >> is there anything normal that we can say normally happens for things like this? >> no. i mean, it's just completely abnormal. when you list different kinds of things that cause air accidents, you're thinking weather, pilot error, navigation errors. shoot-down over a military conflict, zone of a military conflict, highly, highly unusual, but sadly, in that list you enumerated so, so well, you know, it has happened too often. >> well, regardless of wh

robert hager is an nbc news contributor and seth caplan from airline weekly. bob, we talked in the last segment about the possibility of evidence being compromised for the issues we just raised in the intro. how serious of a concern is it to you now? >> it is a serious concern. it may not be as much of a concern as it would be in some domestic airline accident here where the wreckage is supremely important and what's on the black box is supremely important. where everybody is certain it was a missile shoot-down, the physical confirmation of that by examining the wreckage is important but not as paramount as, say, spy satellite pictures, infrared images of the missile being launched, those things. the black boxes. you want them certainly bf the rebels get them. what's on the black box may not be crucial. in the case of the soviet shood of the korean airliner in 1983, that tape went on for a minute and 45 seconds after it was hit by a missile. it didn't have much important to say about what went on. it is a factor that the investigators can't get in there. >> th

joining me now is long time correspondent robert hager. good evening to you, sir. >> how are you?m good. tell me why this is so rare. >> well, it's just that the idea of a plane flying over armed conflict like that and somebody firing on it is just so outlandish that we really have experienced it very, very rarely and statistically, you mentioned the only ones that are really high profile are kind of public cases. so that makes it completely different. i think people got to realize that when we talk about an investigation of an incident like this, it's not your traditional idea of an air accident investigation where investigators go in and they're pouring over the wreckage and they can't wait to the get to the black boxes and send them off to the lab so they can be decoded and listened to. this is really a world of spy satellites and the imagery and things like that, not something for people that we're so use today hearing about from the national transportation safety board, the ntsb. >> that's a great point. you mentioned that and it was late tonight that the white house and a se

joining me now is long time correspondent robert hager. good evening to you, sir. >> how are you? >> i'm good. tell me why this is so rare. >> well, it's just that the idea of a plane flying over armed conflict like that and somebody firing on it is just so outlandish that we really have experienced it very, very rarely and statistically, you mentioned the only ones that are really high profile are kind of public cases. so that makes it completely different. i think people got to realize that when we talk about an investigation of an incident like this, it's not your traditional idea of an air accident investigation where investigators go in and they're pouring over the wreckage and they can't wait to the get to the black boxes and send them off to the lab so they can be decoded and listened to. this is really a world of spy satellites and the imagery and things like that, not something for people that we're so use today hearing about from the national transportation safety board, the ntsb. >> that's a great point. you mentioned that and it was late tonight that the white house an