Netflix Is Dropping a Documentary About Trump’s Bizarre Air Force One Switch, and It’s Coming Fast

Streaming services have gotten remarkably quick at turning breaking news into finished documentaries, but even by those standards, this latest project moved at an unusually rapid pace. Barely two months after a strange, unexplained moment on the international stage first baffled reporters and sparked a wave of online speculation, the full story is already headed to screens.

That speculation began back in July, when President Trump appeared to simply vanish during his return flight from a NATO summit in Turkey. The mystery only deepened when it later emerged that something far stranger than a routine travel delay had actually taken place on the tarmac that day.

Netflix is releasing “Instadocs: The Decoy Plane” on September 4, detailing how, while flying back from the NATO summit, President Trump slipped off Air Force One in a catering truck and secretly boarded a different aircraft, leaving traveling reporters to fly on unaware the president was no longer with them. The documentary unpacks the incident through firsthand accounts from members of the press corps who were aboard Air Force One, along with a former Secret Service agent and a former Air Force One crew member.

According to reporting that surfaced weeks after the incident, the elaborate switch was reportedly prompted by security concerns tied to threats from Iran, which shares a border with Turkey and had seen escalating tensions with the United States around the time of the summit. Trump had originally flown into Ankara aboard a newly renovated, Qatari-donated jet, but unexpectedly opted to use the older, traditional Air Force One for his departure instead.

Rather than actually flying on that aircraft, Trump reportedly left it almost immediately after boarding via the catering truck, then secretly boarded a smaller Air Force C-32A military jet for the actual flight to Britain. Meanwhile, the original Air Force One, still carrying members of the press and White House staff, departed Turkey as planned, with reporters aboard instructed to keep their window shades closed throughout the flight.

Associated Press chief White House photographer Alex Brandon, one of the journalists featured in the documentary, described the strange scene on the tarmac that day. “As we get on the tarmac, and we round and I look at Air Force One, I see those catering vehicles up against the side of Air Force One,” he recalled. “There’s one at the front and one at the back. And I have never seen that before. Forty years doing presidents, never seen that before. I shot it. I shot the sh*t out of it.” He added, “My little Spidey sense is up now. I don’t know why this is happening, and I’m on high alert.”

The operation itself remained shrouded in secrecy until an August 10 Washington Post report finally detailed the escape, prompting the wave of viral videos, memes, and competing theories that followed as the public tried to piece together what had actually happened. The documentary will also feature accounts from Washington Post reporter Dan Lamothe and Reuters White House correspondent Gram Slattery, both of whom were also present that day.

‘Instadocs: The Decoy Plane’ marks the latest release in Netflix’s quick-turn documentary series, designed to move at the speed of breaking news and arrive while public interest is still at its peak. With the full account now landing less than two months after the actual event, viewers will finally get a complete picture of exactly how the operation was carried out.

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