Boeing to halt production of 737 Max Plane in January following crash which killed Penwortham aid worker Sam Pegram

The Chicago-based company said production would halt at its plant with 12,000 employees in Renton, Washington, near Seattle.

The Max is Boeing's most important jet, but it has been grounded since March after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed total of 346 people, and federal regulators told the company last week that it had unrealistic expectations for getting the plane back into service.

Aid worker, Sam Pegram, 25, from Penwortham was one of the 157 people who died when the Ethiopian Airways plane crashed near Addis Ababa.

Boeing said it does not expect any layoffs as a result of the production halt "at this time".

But redundancies could ripple through some of the 900 companies that supply parts for the plane.

"We believe this decision is least disruptive to maintaining long-term production system and supply chain health," the statement said.

The company's stock came under pressure on Monday after the Wall Street Journal reported on the possibility of a Max production halt.

It closed Monday down more than 14 US dollars, or 4.3%, at 327 US dollars.

The stock has fallen 23% since the March 10 crash of a Max flown by Ethiopian Airlines.