Boeing management increasingly sees pausing production as the most viable among difficult options as the plane maker's board began a meeting Sunday in Chicago, these people said. Support for halting production comes days after US regulators warned the aerospace giant it had been setting unrealistic expectations for when the jet would be allowed to fly again, these people said.

It seems that US regulators have gained a bit of backbone against Boeing after signing off on so many things during the production process.

Boeing has already "signalled to US aviation officials last week that it anticipates a production-related announcement this week amounting to at least a significant rollback of MAX output", the  Wall Street Journal reports, citing its deep throats at Boeing.