Boeing ousted CEO Dennis Muilenburg, saying Monday it replaced him with the company's chairman as the nation's biggest manufacturing exporter struggles to regain the trust of regulators, customers and the public in the wake of two fatal crashes of its bestselling plane, the 737 Max. Muilenberg stepped down immediately, and Chairman David Calhoun, 62, will become CEO on Jan. 13. Boeing declined to comment on Muilenburg's severance, but a filing earlier this year showed he could be eligible for around $39 million. The shakeup comes as Boeing has flailed in its attempts to contain one of the biggest crises in its more than 100-year history, disrupting relationships with the very airline customers that fueled Boeing's sales boom in recent years to the pilots who have complained about broken trust. Airlines have lost millions of dollars in revenue and have curbed their growth without access to the fuel efficient planes, which regulators grounded in mid-March. Earlier this month, the Federal Aviation Administration took the rare step of publicly admonishing Boeing for pushing an unrealistic timeline for the planes' return to service and for appearing to pressure the regulator. The two crashes — in Indonesia in October 2018 and in Ethiopia last March — claimed 346 lives. A flight-control program has been implicated in both crashes, and regulators haven't yet signed off on software changes for the planes, forcing airlines to rejigger their schedules well into 2020.

What did Muilenburg in was repeated claims that regulators would return the plane to service in the fourth quarter and a dressing down in Washington by FAA administrator Steve Dickson, according to people familiar with the matter. Boeing acknowledged that concerns about trust led to the change. "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," CFO Greg Smith, who became interim CEO, said in a note to employees, announcing the changes. Boeing shares gained nearly 3% on Monday after Boeing announced the changes but are still down 20% since the second 737 Max crash in March. The FAA declined to comment on Muilenburg's firing but said the agency continues to work with other international aviation safety regulators to review the proposed changes. "Our first priority is safety, and we have set no time frame for when the work will be completed," the agency said in a statement. "We expect that Boeing will support that process by focusing on the quality and timeliness of data submittals for FAA review, as well as being transparent in its relationship with the FAA as safety regulator," it said.

Dave Calhoun, Chairman of Boeing Adam Jeffery | CNBC