The short version
- IBTimes UK reports that Charles Buhler, a NASA-associated physicist, described a 2014 nighttime encounter off Cocoa Beach, Florida.
- In Buhler's account, a bright offshore light grew intense enough to illuminate the beach before one or more helicopters appeared nearby.
- He said the light later moved toward shore, separated into five or six smaller lights, and appeared to follow him and his wife near the breaking waves.
- The telepathy element is Buhler's personal claim: he says the lights disappeared after he mentally told them to leave. That claim is not evidence of communication or control.
What the report says
IBTimes UK says Buhler recounted the episode on the Danny Jones Podcast, released August 14, 2026, during an appearance with aerospace engineer Andrew Aurigema. The report places the alleged event at Cocoa Beach in 2014 and says the witness initially thought the light was a boat several miles offshore before it brightened, pulsed, and cast shadows against buildings behind the beach.
The most concrete parts of the account are the reported location, witness description, approximate sequence, and claimed duration of roughly 45 minutes. The more extraordinary interpretation — that the objects responded to a telepathic command — remains a witness interpretation, not a demonstrated mechanism.
Media and evidence limits
IBTimes UK states that it could not identify contemporaneous military records, video footage, or independent witness accounts confirming the object, the helicopter response, or Buhler's interpretation. NASA has not endorsed the account as an agency finding, and the article notes that Buhler's professional work does not validate the alleged encounter.
The image above is an original source-lead illustration, not source evidence from the reported 2014 event; the source article's lead image could not be recovered as a local deployable media asset during this run. No verified footage, sensor data, radar track, or original beach recording was available in the source material reviewed here.
Why this one is worth tracking
The lead is useful because it separates a credentialed witness's detailed recollection from the much weaker interpretation layered on top of it. Cocoa Beach is also near major aerospace and military activity, so any claim involving helicopters, offshore lights, and proximity to shore would need records, flight data, and independent witnesses before it can move beyond anecdote.
Open questions
- Can any flight logs, ADS-B traces, Coast Guard records, or military records corroborate helicopter activity over Cocoa Beach that night?
- Did any other beachgoers or residents report the same bright offshore light?
- Was the object a conventional source such as marine lighting, aircraft, a launch-related artifact, atmospheric effects, or a distant vessel?
- Is there an exact date and time for the 2014 episode that would allow records searches?