A woman who purchased a lottery ticket with a prize amount reminiscent of the Boeing 747, known as the "Queen of the Skies," was later revealed to be the winner of the first prize.
According to the AP News and others on the 5th (local time), Becky Bell, who lives in Auburn, Washington, won the first prize in the Powerball lottery, one of the US lotteries, last month. The prize money was $754.6 million (approximately 979.5 billion KRW), the fifth largest jackpot in Powerball history.
Bell, who usually buys $20 worth of lottery tickets, had already purchased one ticket as the prize money was rising. In early February, while shopping with her daughter at the US market Fred Meyer, she felt the urge to buy more lottery tickets because the Powerball jackpot amount displayed on the lottery machine monitor showed "$747 million."
Bell, who worked as a supply chain analyst at the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing for 36 years, said that as soon as she saw this number, she thought of Boeing's long-range large passenger aircraft, the "747."
The Boeing 747, which has been in service since 1970, is a long-lasting passenger aircraft with 1,574 units produced over more than half a century, and is called the "Queen of the Skies" for opening the way to full-scale long-distance air travel.
Although it was a symbol of international passenger aircraft, both passenger and cargo versions were discontinued in the mid-1990s as new fuel-efficient models were released one after another. The last aircraft was delivered to the cargo airline Atlas Air on January 31. This was one week before Bell recalled the 747 and purchased the lottery ticket.
In a statement released by the Washington State Lottery Office, Bell said, "At that moment, I suddenly thought of the Boeing 747 and bought one more lottery ticket." The ticket she bought that day had the winning numbers 5, 11, 22, 23, 69 and the Powerball '7.'
To win the Powerball first prize, you must match all six numbers: five numbers from 1 to 69 on the "white balls" and one number from 1 to 26 on the "red Powerball."
The drawing was held on February 6, but Bell did not initially realize she had won. It was only after reading an article the day after the drawing that the winning ticket was sold in Auburn, where she lives, that she thought, "It could be me," and checked the numbers after work.
Bell said, "I had never won more than $20 from buying lottery tickets before," and "The shock I felt when I found out I won is unimaginable. I just collapsed and cried my heart out."
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