Actress Selma Blair was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Sunday night after allegedly attacking two flight attendants aboard a Delta Air Lines flight from Los Angeles, law enforcement sources said.
Reports say the 54-year-old punched one crew member, bit another and tried to open an aircraft door mid-flight. Crew members restrained her, and the pilots asked for medical help as they landed.
Blair went to a hospital for evaluation. A law enforcement source said she kicked a Port Authority police officer in the ambulance and later struck a nurse. The FBI issued her a violation notice over the in-flight assault and is investigating.
On Monday, Blair appeared in Queens Criminal Court, where she was arraigned on two felony counts of second-degree assault. She was released after posting bond, and the judge issued an order of protection for the nurse. Her next court date is January 19, 2027.
Her attorney, Shawn Barnes, told the court she had missed several doses of a powerful medication that controls severe neurological symptoms. Blair disclosed in 2018 that she has multiple sclerosis. Barnes said she boarded the plane after days of exhausting hours on set, then fell and hit her head during the flight. Add the altitude, he argued, and she slipped into severe confusion and disorientation. “This was not an intentional assault,” he said. A representative had earlier called the episode a medical emergency.
Joshua Reitzas, another member of her legal team, urged the judge to weigh Blair’s career. The judge answered that celebrity earns no special treatment. Delta did not name Blair when NBC News asked for comment.
The arrest recalls June 2016, when Blair left a Cancun-to-Los Angeles flight on a stretcher. She apologized then, saying she had mixed alcohol with medication, and later described the episode as a “total psychotic blackout.”
