diff --git a/src/apptask.js b/src/apptask.js
index 0e8fabd72..16a4a7670 100644
--- a/src/apptask.js
+++ b/src/apptask.js
@@ -794,6 +794,11 @@ if (require.main === module) {
 
     debug('Apptask for %s', process.argv[2]);
 
+    process.on('SIGTERM', function () {
+        debug('taskmanager sent SIGTERM since it got a new task for this app');
+        process.exit(0);
+    });
+
     initialize(function (error) {
         if (error) throw error;
 
diff --git a/src/taskmanager.js b/src/taskmanager.js
index 021fb1744..996fdf27f 100644
--- a/src/taskmanager.js
+++ b/src/taskmanager.js
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ function stopAppTask(appId, callback) {
     if (gActiveTasks[appId]) {
         debug('stopAppTask : Killing existing task of %s with pid %s', appId, gActiveTasks[appId].pid);
         gActiveTasks[appId].once('exit', function () { callback(); });
-        gActiveTasks[appId].kill('SIGKILL'); // this will end up calling the 'exit' handler
+        gActiveTasks[appId].kill('SIGTERM'); // this will end up calling the 'exit' handler
         return;
     }