Boeing fires embattled CEO Dennis Muilenburg

Authored by abcnews.go.com and submitted by mattmacphersonphoto

Boeing’s embattled CEO is fired by board of directors Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has been fired, the company announced Monday morning.

Muilenburg may still walk away with $39 million in cash and stock as part of his severance package, a source told ABC News.

David Calhoun, currently the chairman of Boeing's board of directors, was named new CEO.

CFO Greg Smith will serve as interim CEO until Calhoun takes on the role on Jan. 13.

With the "new leadership," Boeing said in a statement, the company "will operate with a renewed commitment to full transparency, including effective and proactive communication with the FAA, other global regulators and its customers."

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg arrives to testify at a hearing in front of congressional lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 30, 2019. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

"The Board determined that a change in leadership was necessary to restore confidence in the company moving forward and that we will proceed with a renewed commitment to full transparency, including effective and proactive communications with the FAA, other global regulators and our customers," Smith said in a note to employees.

"Over the next few weeks as we transition to new leadership, I am committed to ensuring above all that we meet the needs of our stakeholders – especially our regulators, customers and employees – with transparency and humility," Smith added.

Muilenburg's ousting comes days after the Boeing Starliner’s failed mission to the International Space Station.

The unmanned spacecraft was forced to abort the mission after an "automation" error resulted in the Starliner not reaching its correct orbit, according to NASA officials, who said the spacecraft believed the time was "different than it actually was."

The Starliner was just one of the recent setbacks for the company.

Last week, Boeing announced it was suspending production of its 737 Max jets which have been grounded since March after two deadly crashes that killed a total of 346 people. The company admitted that its automatic flight control system played a role in the deadly 737 Max crashes.

"I strongly believe in the future of Boeing and the 737 MAX. I am honored to lead this great company and the 150,000 dedicated employees who are working hard to create the future of aviation," Calhoun said in a statement.

PilotDad on December 23rd, 2019 at 18:54 UTC »

A good read from The Atlantic that points to the shift from Seattle to Chicago as the day things started downhill for Boeing.

sherevs on December 23rd, 2019 at 16:31 UTC »

Muilenburg inherited this mess from McNerney. Muilenburg started as an engineer and was at the company for over 30 years. He was trying to fix the problems at the company, but it was too little too late.

McNerney came from 3M with no background in engineering. He was the one who decided to launch the MAX instead of a complete redesign, and he was the one enforcing tight spending controls on development and testing while it was built.

I see Muilenburg’s primary faults here in not immediately grounding the fleet after the second accident (or whenever they found the MCAS system at fault for the crash) and trying to rush recertification.

But I don’t think that’s why he was fired. The board wants to get him out of the way so they can hire another Wall Street Type and start layoffs and avoid actually changing the management culture that caused this.

bruno_b82 on December 23rd, 2019 at 15:09 UTC »

2019 has been totally disastrous for boeing, I find it natural