MUFON 53936

{nd} 5 lights in staggered line going of and on small plane approaches lights go off one by one as it nears them last one shoots up and out of sight I was on the Ohio River on a stretch of river just above the Cardinal (AEP) power plant and below Wellsburg WV. I was working as a deckhand on the towboat Elizabeth M . The pilot of the boat went to his room to catch a couple winks and I was running the boat up the river, by myself in the pilot house. It was a clear night and I was looking at the stars when I saw one just turn off . This got my attention and I continued to watch this area of the sky.This was above the hills on the WV side of the river. As I continued to watch I eventually saw a total of 5 , what looked like slightly larger than normal stars turning of and on randomly.They were in a what I could best describe as a staggered horizontal line with approximately 1/4 mile or less spacing between each of them. Within a few minutes I saw a small plane approaching the stars. I could clearly see the navigation lights on the plane. AT this time all 5 stars are lit up and as the plane got closer the lights (stars) would go off . This happened one by one except when it got close to the last star. The last one just shot straight up and out of sight in the blink of an eye. I was in awe of what I had just witnessed and really wished there had been someone else there with to witness it . I dont know what it was and had never seen anything like that before or after until I saw a video of the ufo over the dome of the rock. When that one shoots straight up , it is exactly what I saw that night , when that last star just shot straight up. This was many years ago when I was a young man, so my memory of the exact dates and times elude me now. The event lasted for 5-10 minutes and was probably in the Fall of 1978 between midnight and 4 am but the event is still clear in my mind .