New details have emerged about some of 227 passengers and 12 crew on board Malaysia Airlines’ Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing that has been missing since early Saturday.

There were 14 different nationalities on the Boeing 777 that mysteriously vanished south of Vietnam without sending a distress call.

The vast majority – 153 people – were Chinese citizens, according to the Malaysia Airlines passenger manifest.

Among them was a 19-member group of prominent artists, who were returning home after an exhibition in the Malaysian capital.

Everyone in the group, led by Hou Bo, was “very famous in China”, exhibition organiser Daniel Liau was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper.

Some were China’s leading calligraphy artists, he added.

Another eight Chinese nationals as well as 12 Malaysians were employees of America’s Freescale Semiconductor company.

It is also known that five children – aged two to four – were on board the plane: three Chinese and two Americans.

There were 14 different nationalities on Malaysia Airlines flight that mysteriously vanished south of Vietnam

The third American was identified as Philip Wood – a 51-year-old IBM employee from Texas.

The oldest person on the board the plane was 79.

The pilot, who led the 12-member crew, was named by Malaysia Airlines as Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, joined the carrier in 1981 and had 18,365 hours of flight experience.

But, perhaps, the most puzzling questions remain over the true identities of two people registered as Austria’s Christian Kozel and Luigi Maraldi of Italy.

The foreign ministries in Vienna and Rome later said the two men were not in fact on the plane.

It is understood that their passports have either been stolen or lost in Thailand in recent years.

Malaysian officials say international counter-terrorism agencies from a number of countries have joined an investigation and all angles are now being examined.

Manifest for Flight MH370

• 153 Chinese
• 38 Malaysians
• 7 Indonesians
• 6 Australians
• 5 Indians
• 4 French
• 3 Americans
• 2 each from New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada
• One each from Russia, Taiwan, Italy, Netherlands and Austria (although both Italy and Austria deny any of their nationals were onboard)

Source: Malaysia Airlines

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