Police detained 54-year-old actress Salma Blair after she was accused of injuring two flight attendants during a Delta Air Lines flight from Los Angeles to New York, before facing two additional charges of kicking a police officer who was escorting her to hospital and a nurse after she arrived there. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement that police detained Blair at about 11pm after the aircraft stopped at the gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Salma Blair appears in court and pleads not guilty
The authority added that the actress and one member of the flight crew were taken to hospital for examinations and the necessary medical assessment. Blair appeared in court on Monday evening, where she pleaded not guilty to the two assault charges brought against her under state law, relating to the police officer and the nurse.
She also faces separate federal charges over the alleged incidents said to have occurred on board the aircraft, which are being investigated by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. The airline, police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not immediately disclose details of the incident on board.
Delta and Blair’s lawyer give conflicting accounts
Delta said in a statement that it had “zero tolerance for disruptive or unlawful behaviour”, stressing that the safety of customers and crew members always came first. In contrast, a representative for Blair said the actress had suffered a severe medical emergency that led to the behaviour attributed to her.
Her lawyer, Sean Barnes, told the judge that her actions had not been intentional, explaining that his client, who has multiple sclerosis, had missed several doses of “a powerful medication that controls severe neurological symptoms”. Barnes added that Blair had boarded the aircraft in Los Angeles after an exhausting period of work, and that her head had struck something during the flight.
He said that these factors, combined with the effects of altitude, had caused her to suffer “a severe state of confusion and loss of the ability to determine direction”. The judge set Blair’s bail at 20,000 US dollars in cash, or a 60,000-US-dollar bond, and scheduled January for the next hearing. The actress left the courthouse with her lawyer.
