The Coast Guard searched through the night 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 already scanned a vast area about the size of Rhode Island on Tuesday after the man was pulled to safety.
The man told a good Samaritan who rescued him that he was part of a group of 40 people who left the island of Bimini in the Bahamas on Saturday night in what the maritime security agency suspects was a human smuggling operation. He said none wore life jackets as they capsized in severe weather.
