Netflix will be debuting a third installment in its Instadocs documentary series, this time centering on the Donald Trump plane switching incident that took place on July 8, 2026. Titled Instadocs: The Decoy Plane, the documentary will be releasing on the streaming platform on Sept. 4, 2026.
The incident it covers concerns a reported threat from Iran suspected by the US President's Secret Service who discreetly transferred him off of the plane that was to depart from Ankara, Turkey. The plane was flying to RAF Mildenhall in the UK, as a part of the US Head Of State's return trip to the country after attending the NATO summit in Turkey.
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Trump was then secretly switched out from the plane via a catering truck with an elevated bed, positioned to receive him.
Two planes then took off from Ankara, with only one of them carrying the President. This left the other aircraft as a de facto decoy and a potential target of the reported threat, which never came to pass.
As per reports, the decoy plane carried Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent along with other senior White House aides, staff, press and military personnel. Rubio was briefed on the switch while the press was confirmed to have been unaware of Trump's inconspicuous exit.
Members of the White House press widely questioned the decision with many reporters expressing their disapproval of unwittingly being used as a decoy to ensure the US President's safety.
When you sign up to work at the White House, even as a civilian, part of your job is to defend the president," a reporter told The Washington Post, who disclosed this operation on Aug. 10, 2026.
"That's not my job. I cover the president. Reporters take risks as part of the job, but not on behalf of the president," they added.
Trump contended that the flight he switched to was more dangerous than the one that was carrying the journalists.
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"I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk, I think it was at greater risk because that would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for," he said in an interaction with the press.
The documentary will feature interviews with Gram Slattery, a White House reporter for Reuters, Alex Brandon, a photographer from the Associated Press, Carol Leonnig, an MS NOW investigative reporter, Dan Lamothe, The Washington Post reporter from the team that broke the story, Robert McDonald, former Secret Service agent and Wanda Joell, former Air Force One crew member.
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