Harry Stonecipher was brought out of retirement to save Boeing.

Instead, he began an affair with another Boeing employee and was fired. Boeing’s board of directors decided that Stonecipher had shown poor judgment and embarrassed the company.

Here’s what Stonecipher didn’t do: He didn’t break any laws. He didn’t harass or rape anyone. He didn’t promote and increase the pay of his mistress. He didn’t pass off the costs of the relationship through his expense account. And he didn’t deny it.

At another company, at another time, Stonecipher probably could have avoided public embarrassment. It would have been unlikely that another company would have snooped through the CEO’s e-mail and expense vouchers looking for evidence of a liaison.

Boeing was suffering terrible damage from back-to-back scandals before Stonecipher came back. The company tried to bilk the U.S. government out of billions of dollars with an Air Force contract to lease new tanker airplanes instead of buying them. And it stole information about a rival. Felony convictions followed for the former chief financial officer and an Air Force officer involved in the deal.

Stonecipher brought Boeing back from the brink. He helped stock prices recover and created a tough ethical standard within the company.

We are not defending infidelity. But how does consensual sex rank as a firing offense when compared to the ethical lapses that have marred Boeing in the not-so-distant past?

Stonecipher accepted the board of director’s decision and took the blame for his downfall. He set the high standards, broke them and paid a stiff price that must now be shared by the rest of the company. His affair has proven costly – and that’s before tallying the damage done to his personal life.