A Shotgun Aboard a Falcon 7X at Tires Left the 95-Year-Old Who Ran Formula One in PSP Custody

Bernie Ecclestone, who ran Formula One for four decades, was detained on Monday at the Aeródromo de Tires in Cascais after landing in his private jet with a shotgun in his possession. The 95-year-old was stopped by officers of the PSP's Airport Division during what both ECO and Observador describe as a routine inspection carried out on arrival.

The aircraft was his Dassault Falcon 7X, valued at around 40 million euros. The reported grounds for the detention are alleged illegal possession of a firearm. As of Monday night it was not known whether Ecclestone would be brought before a judge or formally made an arguido, the Portuguese status of a named suspect in a criminal case, and the PSP had made no public statement.

Why an aerodrome inspection found it

Tires is not a quiet field. Security at the Cascais aerodrome has been reinforced, with both the PSP and the Polícia Judiciária maintaining a permanent presence in facilities provided by the municipal council, specifically so that arrivals can be checked closely. Private aviation is the part of the system where documentation is most often assumed rather than examined, and the arrangement at Tires exists to remove that assumption.

Portuguese firearms law is strict and does not soften for visitors. Under Lei 5/2006, holding a firearm requires a licence in the correct class and a manifesto registering the specific weapon, and bringing one into the country is a separate procedure with its own paperwork. We set the framework out in full in our guide to owning a firearm in Portugal. Enforcement is not theoretical either: the PSP took in 265 firearms and nearly six thousand rounds over two months this summer under its voluntary surrender scheme.

Not the first time

A close parallel exists. On 26 May 2022, Brazilian authorities found an undocumented .32 calibre pistol in Ecclestone's luggage as he prepared to board a private jet for Switzerland. He acknowledged owning the weapon but said he had not known it was in the bag, paid bail of about 990 pounds, roughly 1,100 euros, and was released.

A long connection to Portugal

Ecclestone's association with the country is older than most of his critics. He was central to returning the Portuguese Grand Prix to the Formula One calendar in 1984, when the race came back at Estoril, and the circuit went on to hold the event for years. He led the sport's commercial side from 1970 until 2017, when he stepped aside after Liberty Media acquired the championship, having turned it into a global business built on television rights and sponsorship.

He now divides his time between Portugal, Switzerland and Brazil. His Portuguese base is a 2,000 square metre house at Quinta da Marinha in Cascais, valued at around 40 million euros, bought by his wife Fabiana Flosi.

Nothing has been decided. A detention is not a charge, the case has not been characterised publicly by the police, and the difference between a licensing failure and an offence of consequence will turn on documents that have not been described. What the episode does illustrate is that the checks at Tires are real, that they apply to the passengers of a Falcon 7X exactly as they apply to anyone else, and that Portugal's firearms regime does not make allowances for a famous name arriving by private jet.