Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun announces he'll step down after Alaska Airlines door plug disaster and 737 MAX crises: Stocks jump as two other executives also quit

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun is to step down at the end of the year in a management overhaul in the wake of a safety crisis at the troubled aerospace giant.

Calhoun plus the chairman of the board and the head of its commercial airlines business are all leaving amid the ongoing 737 MAX safety issues. 

Wall Street responded positively to the news - with Boeing shares rising by 4 percent by 8.45am EST in premarket trading.

The company has been hit by problems including a near-catastrophic incident in on January 5 when a fuselage panel on a 737 MAX 9 Alaska Airlines jet blew off mid-flight. 

Since then, the company has faced questions following several other potentially dangerous episodes - but regulators, airlines and passengers have been frustrated at the lack of answers from Calhoun. Shares had fallend 25 percent since the incident.

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun is finally stepping down as head of the troubled airline maker

A panel blew out from the fuselage of a 737 Max 9 aircraft carrying Alaska Airlines passengers on January 5

Alaska Airlines has resumed service on the Boeing 737 MAX 9 following a three-week grounding in the wake of a January 5 emergency landing

Board chairman Larry Kellner is resigning and will leave at the airline maker's annual meeting in May. 

Steve Mollenkopf, who has been a Boeing director since 2020, will take over as chairman - and lead the search for a replacement for Calhoun.

The planemaker also said that Stan Deal, Boeing commercial airplanes president and CEO, would retire. Stephanie Pope, who recently became Boeing's chief operating officer, will take up that role. 

In a letter to staff after annoucing he was stepping down, Calhoun referenced putting 'safety and quality at the forefront of everything that we do.'

He added: 'The eyes of the world are on us, and I know that we will come through this moment a better company.'

After the news broke, Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth said: 'They need more than just a shake-up at the CEO and the chairman of the board level... they're just paralysed from making decisions.'

Last week, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration blasted Boeing for focusing on 'production' instead of 'safety and quality.'

Administrator Michael Whitaker was left unimpressed with the aerospace giant following a visit to its facilities. 

'My impressions were similar to the culture survey that just got completed at Boeing and our audit, which is that there are issues around the safety culture at Boeing,' he told Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News in a segment that will air Tuesday evening.

'Their priorities have been on production, and not on safety and quality. So what we really are focused on now, is shifting that focus, from production to safety and quality.' 

The FAA has put the company under intense scrutiny and recently ordered an audit of assembly lines at a Boeing factory near Seattle, where the company builds planes like the Alaska Airlines 737 Max that suffered a door-panel blowout. 

No one was seriously injured on the Alaska flight, but the plane was forced to make an emergency landing with a gaping hole in the cabin.

Investigators say bolts that help keep the panel in place were missing after repair work at the Boeing factory. 

The incident has raised scrutiny of Boeing to its highest level since two crashes of Boeing 737 Max jets in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.

Meanwhile, last week airline CEOs began scheduling meetings with Boeing management. As well as concerns over manufacturing issues, they are increasingly frustrated by reductions to the number of planes being delivered this year. 

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun is to step dopwn after safety questions piled up for the company

Southwest previously expected 79 737 Max aircraft this year but that forecast was cut to 46

The Federal Aviation Administration capped production of the 737 Max due to safety concerns

Since a door plug blew out of a Boeing 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January, Boeing has lurched from crisis to crisis - and it stock has fallen by a quarter.

While they investigate what went wrong, Federal investigators have capped the production of 737 Max aircraft - which means US airlines will not get all the planes expected ahead of the summer.

So far this year, Boeing has delivered only 42 planes to customers despite facing a backlog of more than 4,700 orders. 

Meanwhile, shares of United Airlines fell about 5 percent in premarket trade on Monday after the FAA move to increase its oversight of the carrier after a series of recent safety incidents.

Last week, the FAA said it would initiate a formal evaluation to ensure the Chicago-based airline was complying with safety regulations.