Missing Malaysia flight: What we know about the 239 on board

Investigators of missing Malaysia Airlines fight 370's disappearance are checking the backgrounds of the passenger jet's 227 passengers and 12 crew members, as well as the ground crew. CBS News rounds up that latest on the people on board the flight which vanished early on March 8.

Follow the latest updates on the search here and the investigation here, and for complete, ongoing coverage, visit our special section: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Nationalities on board: Of the flight's 227 passengers, 152 are from China, 38 are from Malaysia and the rest are from countries across the globe, including India, Australia, France, Indonesia, Ukraine, New Zealand and the United States. All 12 crew members are Malaysian.

The pilot: Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981 and had more than 18,000 hours of flying experience. Known as an avid aviation enthusiast, Zaharie had set up an elaborate flight simulator in his home, which has been confiscated by Malaysian authorities.

A supporter of Malaysia's main opposition parties, he had volunteered to be a poll monitor in recent elections.

The co-pilot: Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007 and with just 2,763 hours of flight experience, he had only recently started co-piloting the sophisticated Boeing 777. The son of a high-ranking civil servant in Selangor state, Fariq was described as a "good boy, a good Muslim, humble and quiet" by Ahmad Sarafi Ali Asrah, the head of his community mosque, in an interview with the Associated Press. He was filmed recently by a crew from "CNN Business Traveler," landing a Boeing 777-200, the same model of the twin-aisle plane that went missing.

Fariq has drawn greatest scrutiny after the revelation he and another pilot invited two women boarding their aircraft to sit in the cockpit for a flight from Phuket, Thailand to Kuala Lumpur in 2011.

Aviation engineer on board: Malaysian police are investigating Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat, 29, a Malaysian flight engineer among the passengers, as they focus on anyone on board who had technical flying knowledge. According to reports, Khairul has indicated on social media that had worked for a private jet charter company. Reuters reports that Khairul had more than 10 years experience as a flight engineer, but that as an engineer specializing in executive jets, he would "not necessarily have all the knowledge needed to divert and fly a large jetliner."

Selamat Omar, Khairul's father, told AP that there is no reason to suspect him, adding: "It is impossible for him to be involved in something like this."

Passengers with stolen passports: Early speculation leaned toward terrorism after two men, later identified as Iranians, boarded the plane with stolen passports. Authorities later determined Pouria Nourmohammadi Mehrdad, 19, and Seyed Mohammed Reza Delavar, 29, were migrants seeking to travel to Europe illegally. The two men were not found to have links to terrorism.

The other passengers: The passengers included artists, business people, worshipers and vacationers. Five passengers were children under 5 years old, including a two-year-old, the youngest passenger. The oldest passenger was 76.

"We want to send out our thoughts and prayers to all of the families that have been affected, but particularly our American families, who I can only imagine what they're going through with all of the uncertainty that's taken place," President Barack Obama told the Dallas Fox affiliate.

China Daily reports that 30 passengers were part of a group of artists and calligraphers who had traveled to Malaysia to attend an art exhibit in Kuala Lumpur. There was also a celebrated Uighur artist called Memetjan Abla.

China announced Tuesday that background checks of the 154 Chinese citizens on board turned up no links to terrorism, apparently ruling out the possibility that Uighur Muslim militants who have been blamed for terror attacks within China might have been involved in the disappearance.