Boeing on Monday fired its chief executive, Dennis A. Muilenburg, whose handling of the company’s 737 Max crisis had angered lawmakers, airlines, regulators and victims’ families.

The world’s biggest plane-maker said Dave Calhoun, the chairman, would replace Muilenburg on January 13. Until then, Boeing’s chief financial officer, Greg Smith, will serve as interim chief executive, the company said.

The Boeing board made the decision on a call on Sunday, after a string of disastrous announcements for the company, according to two people briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Muilenburg has stepped down effective immediately.

Boeing has been mired in the worst crisis in its 103-year history since the crashes of two 737 Max jets killed 346 people. The plane has been grounded since March, and Boeing has faced cascading delays as it tries to return the Max to the air. Last week, Boeing said it would temporarily shut down the 737 Max factory.

Muilenburg’s relationship with the Federal Aviation Administration was badly damaged after he was seen as pressuring the agency to return the planes to service. On Friday, a Boeing space capsule designed for Nasa failed to reach the correct orbit, a crushing blow to company morale.

Before the plane can fly again, the company and regulators must fix an automated system known as MCAS that was found to have played a role in both crashes, and ensure that the Max is certified safely and transparently.

Muilenburg has repeatedly made overly optimistic projections about how quickly the plane would return to service. That has created chaos for airlines, which have had to cancel thousands of flights and sacrifice billions of dollars in sales.

His attempts to offer sincere public apologies have been clumsy, leaving lawmakers irate and the families of victims feeling as if the company did not care about their loss.

Boeing stock has fallen by 22 per cent in this crisis, costing the company more than $8 billion and affecting a supply chain that extends to 8,000 companies.

As recently as Friday, the Boeing board was standing by Muilenburg. But over the weekend, simmering frustration with Muilenburg’s performance came to a head.

Boeing said in a statement that its board of directors “decided that a change in leadership was necessary to restore confidence in the company moving forward as it works to repair relationships with regulators, customers, and all other stakeholders”.