US Coast Guard searches for 39 people lost off Florida

The US Coast Guard ship Bernard C Webber leaves an agency base in Miami Beach, Florida (Marta Lavandier/AP)

The US Coast Guard searched through the night on Wednesday for 39 people missing from a capsized boat after a solitary survivor was found clinging to the overturned hull off the Florida coast.

Crews on at least four ships and five aircraft had already scanned a vast area about the size of Rhode Island on Tuesday after the man was pulled to safety.