Netflix is rolling out the red carpet for the latest entry in media navel-gazing: a documentary detailing the absolute “horror” of reporters being left on a plane with the window shades lowered.
The streaming giant announced Tuesday that “Instadocs: The Decoy Plane” will premiere Friday, September 4. The documentary examines the July incident where the Secret Service pulled off a slick maneuver in Ankara, Turkey. Facing credible assassination threats from Iran against President Donald Trump, security officials quietly shuttled the commander-in-chief off Air Force One via a catering truck and onto a secure military transport plane.
Left behind on the main 747 was the White House press pool, blissfully unaware that Trump wasn’t aboard, only to erupt in a collective panic upon realizing they’d played the role of unwitting decoys. According to Netflix, “a plane full of reporters and the public they answer to were left flying blind.”
The documentary promises “firsthand accounts” from shell-shocked journalists detailing their harrowing experience. One AP photographer dramatically recounted shooting “the sh*t out of” a catering truck before receiving the horrifying command to pull down his window shade, instantly triggering his “spidey sense.”
This July, while flying back from a NATO summit in Turkey, 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.
Instadocs: The Decoy Plane,… pic.twitter.com/iuADnXxMoV
— Netflix (@netflix) September 1, 2026
Other reporters have openly whined about being treated as “expendable,” while the White House Correspondents’ Association fired off private notes wringing their hands over “press safety” and reporting integrity.
Because if there’s one thing the White House press corps excels at, it’s making a life-saving military operation all about themselves.
Enter reality.
Former Clinton military aide Lt. Col. Robert “Buzz” Patterson torched the media’s melodramatic narrative, calling the Secret Service’s high-stakes shell game “brilliant” and routine.
Patterson pointed out that presidential decoys, stealth plane swaps, and catering-truck tactics are standard operating procedures administrations have used for decades, including Clinton’s, to protect the presidency in high-threat environments. He scoffed at the media’s safety outrage, noting the decoy jet carried senior Cabinet officials, full Air Force crews, and was escorted by U.S. fighter jets.
“We do it all the time,” Patterson said, warning that the media’s hyperventilating and dangerous leaks about classified security protocols actually put future presidents and military personnel in harm’s way. He stated, “I hope that they prosecute this to the fullest. Whoever leaked that, in my opinion, and having been involved in this, was highly placed in that process. There’s only a few people who actually know exactly what’s going down, and that’s by design. So if somebody leaked it, it was somebody involved in the process, and that scares the hell out of me.”
While the press corps treats a routine, successful counter-threat operation like a traumatic thriller, Netflix is more than happy to cash in on the drama.
Don’t forget to close your window shades.
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