Selma Blair's rep says a medical emergency, not intent, drove the midair incident that led to her arrest and assault charges at JFK.
Port Authority police took actress Selma Blair into custody late Sunday after a call about a physically abusive passenger on a Delta Air Lines jet that had just arrived at New York's JFK Airport from Los Angeles.
Officials said the response came around 11 p.m. on October 11 as Delta flight 938 sat at the gate. Blair, identified as a 54-year-old woman, was arrested, taken for hospital evaluation, and later arraigned on assault counts while her team insisted the episode was medical, not a deliberate attack.
New York Port Authority officials confirmed to Fox News Digital that officers answered a report of a physically abusive passenger aboard the parked flight.
"On Sunday October 11 at approximately 11pm at JFK Airport, PAPD responded to a call about a physically abusive passenger aboard Delta Airlines flight 938 which was parked at the gate after arrival from LAX," officials said. "Suspect was identified as Selma Blair, a 54-year-old woman. She was taken into custody and transported to the hospital for evaluation."
Court filings described further trouble on the ground. Blair was restrained on a stretcher at the airport, freed a leg, and allegedly kicked an officer in the face, neck, and chest hard enough to cause substantial swelling, according to those documents. A nurse at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center alleged Blair kicked her in the chest while staff moved her.
The New York Post reported that Blair allegedly slugged one flight attendant and bit another during the flight, leaving injuries that included a bloody nose and bite marks. Crew members restrained her. She was removed from the plane at JFK. The FBI opened a separate track, and law enforcement said she faces an additional assault-related summons.
Pilot radio traffic captured in that reporting asked JFK personnel to have medical staff ready for flight attendants hurt in the passenger incident, citing a bloody nose and bite marks.
Readers following the case will also find earlier coverage of how Blair was taken into custody after the alleged attack on Delta crew at the airport.
The Washington Examiner reported that the disturbance unfolded while the plane was already midair Sunday on the way to JFK, and that Blair allegedly punched a flight attendant, bit another, and tried to open an aircraft door.
The Washington Examiner described the mid-flight door claim as part of the account of what happened before landing.
Blair's representative later rejected that door claim in a detailed statement and said there was no attempt to open the aircraft door.
On Monday, October 12, 2026, Blair appeared in Queens Criminal Court. She was arraigned on two counts of second-degree assault and pleaded not guilty. A judge set bail at $20,000 cash, $60,000 bond, or $60,000 partially secured bond. She is expected back in court in January 2027.
Attorney Shawn Barnes told the court the conduct was not an intentional assault. He said Blair had missed several doses of a powerful medication that controls severe neurological symptoms, had worked exhaustive hours on set in the days before the flight, and at one point fell and hit her head during the trip. Those factors, plus altitude, produced severe confusion and disorientation, he argued.
"This was not an intentional assault."
Barnes also said the missed doses, the head injury, exhaustion, and altitude together left her badly disoriented.
Separate reporting has examined whether missed medication and assault charges could carry serious prison exposure if prosecutors prove their case.
Delta Air Lines said law enforcement met the flight on arrival, the jet landed ahead of schedule, and the episode caused no operational impact. The airline drew a hard line on conduct in the cabin.
"Delta has zero tolerance for unruly or unlawful behavior, as the safety of our customers and crew always comes first."
On Friday, Blair's spokesperson issued a lengthy statement to People magazine pushing back on the early public narrative. The rep said the account since Sunday night had been built almost entirely on a police statement and a decade-old headline, and that fair reporting on Blair as a person had been the exception.
"But fair reporting has been the exception, and in the space left by our silence, speculation has hardened into something being treated as fact. We can, however, correct the record on a few points already in public circulation. Selma Blair experienced a medical emergency on the flight. There was no attempt to open the door of the aircraft. Selma did not intend to harm anyone."
The statement stressed Blair's multiple sclerosis diagnosis, public since 2018, and said suggestions she does not have MS are outrageous. It described daily pain, "bad days," and pseudobulbar affect, a neurological condition secondary to MS that the rep said shapes how a medical episode can look to strangers. Blair travels with a service dog that stays at her side; the spokesperson said authorities took the dog from her.
"There is much more to this story than has been reported, and we ask to consider the entirety of the facts before rushing to judgment, whether in the courtroom or in the court of public opinion."
The same statement listed recent work: seven film and television projects in 2026, new consumer lines built for people whose bodies do not always cooperate, and public advocacy for disability rights, the MS community, and the Jewish community, including remarks from the stage at an ADL State of the Arts event at The Jewish Museum two weeks earlier. It also noted she had never been arrested before Sunday night.
Blair's public fights with Hollywood over Israel and related posts have drawn their own coverage, including when she said studios cut her off after urging deportation of October 7 supporters.
The New York Post account also noted a prior 2016 airline disturbance involving Blair, alcohol, and medication, and said her representative tied the latest episode to a medical emergency connected to MS and reported she was stable after treatment.
Days after the arrest and court date, Blair appeared at 90s Con at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. She did photo operations with fans. Fox News Digital obtained video of her leaving the event with an entourage and her service dog.
Personal fallout has continued in parallel coverage as her boyfriend sought prayers while assault charges moved forward.
Prosecutors still have to prove the second-degree assault counts in Queens and whatever the separate FBI summons covers. Blair's lawyers will keep pressing the missed-medication, head-injury, and MS-related confusion defense. Flight attendants, a police officer, and a hospital nurse are the people the filings describe as being struck, bitten, or kicked.
Cabin crews and first responders do not sign up to be punching bags, and a medical explanation offered after the fact does not erase the need for a full, public accounting of who got hurt and why.
