Netflix Documentary Relives Night Trump Boarded Air Force One in Turkey Then Left on Another Jet

A Netflix documentary premiering on Friday revisits the July night Donald Trump was seen boarding Air Force One in Ankara after a NATO summit then leaving on another jet. Instadocs: The Decoy Plane reconstructs how the president slipped from the aircraft into a catering truck and boarded a military C-32A while the travelling press corps flew on unaware.

The film draws on footage and interviews with journalists who remained on the decoy plane.

How Trump Was Filmed Boarding Then Vanishing From Air Force One

Cameras captured Trump waving from the front left-side door of the older Boeing 747 used as Air Force One at Ankara Esenboğa Airport on 8 July. Officials had publicly said he would fly that aircraft rather than the $400 million (£295.9 million) Boeing 747-8 gifted by Qatar on which he had arrived, citing old times' sake.

Within minutes he exited by a galley service door on the opposite side, entered a hydraulically raised catering container and was driven across the tarmac to a nearby Air Force C-32A.

A US official later told reporters that a credible Iranian assassination threat prompted the deception operation. Reporters and some senior staff stayed on the larger jet that then departed for RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, England.

The Catering Truck Transfer That Left Reporters Flying Blind

Associated Press photographer Alex Brandon later recalled seeing catering vehicles lined against the fuselage, something he had never witnessed before.

White House staff instructed journalists to lower their window shades on Secret Service orders, raising what Brandon called his Spidey sense.

Trump and a handful of aides transferred to the C-32A. The Qatari-gifted jet, the decoy Air Force One and the C-32A left Ankara separately.

The smaller military aircraft carrying the president arrived at Mildenhall about 10:20pm local time, with the older Air Force One landing minutes later.

Trump was secretly moved back onto the decoy jet, from which he then walked down the steps in view of cameras before boarding the Qatari aircraft for Washington.

Trump later told reporters 'They wanted me to go on a different flight, different plane' and added 'I guess there was a threat out there. I didn't really ask too much about it.'

Netflix Documentary Assembles Firsthand Accounts From the Press Corps

Instadocs: The Decoy Plane, produced by Words + Pictures with showrunner Steve Yaccino, features Reuters White House reporter Gram Slattery, Brandon, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Carol Leonnig, Washington Post defence correspondent Dan Lamothe who helped break the original story, former Secret Service agent Robert McDonald and former Air Force One crew member Wanda Joell.

Executive producers include Josh Tyrangiel and Connor Schell. The documentary uses pool video of the Ankara boarding sequence and the unusual tarmac movements that first alerted those on board. Those on the decoy flight only realised the president had never been aboard after they landed in Britain.

The documentary arrives less than eight weeks after the July events it examines and three weeks after the investigation. Netflix released a short trailer this week showing Brandon on the Ankara tarmac as catering trucks clustered around the presidential aircraft. It is the third instalment of the Instadocs series.