Actress Selma Blair has responded to assault charges stemming from a Delta Airlines flight to New York on Sunday evening, saying through her publicist that she "did not intend to harm anyone" and that she experienced a medical emergency aboard the aircraft.
Blair, 54, faces multiple assault charges. She pleaded not guilty to assaulting an officer and a nurse after being removed from the flight, and was also accused of assaulting two flight attendants on board. She was arrested, taken to hospital, and released on bail.
Her legal team attributed the incident to a medical episode and Blair's neurological conditions. The actress has multiple sclerosis, which she disclosed publicly in 2018 and announced was in remission in 2021. However, her statement notes she "still has bad days." Blair also has pseudobulbar affect, a disorder that causes sudden, involuntary episodes of laughing, crying, or anger that do not match a person's actual feelings, according to the US National Institutes of Health.
The publicist's statement said the account of what happened "has been built almost entirely on a police statement and a decade-old headline" and denied media reports that Blair attempted to open the aircraft door.
According to the New York Port Authority, two flight attendants were injured in the incident, with one taken to hospital. A pilot requested medical help and described "a bloody nose" and "some bite marks," according to audio recorded on air traffic control and obtained by CBS News.
Blair's team emphasized her achievements since her MS diagnosis and noted that she has no prior arrests. "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 statement read.
Blair was charged with federal assault within special maritime and territorial jurisdiction and faced two additional state-court assault charges following her removal from the plane.