Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun to Step Down Amid Ongoing Safety Concerns

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun says he's jumping ship, he plans to call it quits by the end of this year ... amid the company's ongoing safety fiascos.

In a statement Monday, Calhoun straight-up acknowledged Boeing's challenges, saying, "The eyes of the world are on us, and I know that we will come through this moment a better company."

He added, "We will remain squarely focused on completing the work we have done together to return our company to stability after the extraordinary challenges of the past five years, with safety and quality at the forefront of everything that we do."

Meanwhile, in a letter to his employees, Calhoun was all about humility and transparency during the company's tough times ... advising them to remain focused on a "total commitment to safety and quality at every level of our company."

He also expressed hope they would "come through this moment a better company, building on all the learnings we accumulated as we worked together to rebuild Boeing over the last number of years."

Former Qualcomm CEO, Steve Mollenkopf, will be stepping into the Boeing board chair role after Calhoun's exit, and will lead the hunt for Boeing's next chief executive.

The company shakeup is even bigger ... Boeing's chairman Larry Kellner will also be stepping down in May after nearly 15 years on the board -- and Stan Deal, President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, is also out the door, effective immediately.

For a quick recap -- Boeing's been having a rough ride lately ... a recent flight out of San Fran saw a chunk of the plane fly off mid-air. Another lost a wheel, and flames shooting from an engine forced yet another into an emergency landing.

Then there's the LATAM flight in Australia that had passengers fearing the worst as it started dropping unexpectedly ... and let's not forget the mid-flight scare with a door blowing open back in January -- now under criminal investigation.

On top of that, Boeing whistleblower, John Barnett, who had been raising serious concerns about the company's safety shortcuts, died earlier this month while in the middle of a retaliation lawsuit against them. Cops say it looks like Barnett took his own life, but his attorneys ain't buying it!

What's more ... Calhoun stepped into the Boeing ring just as the world was reeling from the 737 Max disaster, which saw 346 lives lost after 2 deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia ... grounding all Boeing 737 Max aircraft worldwide.