Natasha Lyonne Ejected from Delta Flight: What Really Happened?

Actress Natasha Lyonne was reportedly escorted off a Delta flight after she failed to comply with cabin crew instructions to shut down her laptop and fasten her seatbelt.

According to a report by Page Six, the incident occurred as Lyonne was set to leave Los Angeles on Tuesday. This was merely hours after she attended the highly-anticipated season three premiere of “Euphoria” in Hollywood, where she appeared somewhat disoriented.

This event follows a recent admission from Lyonne that she had experienced a setback in her sobriety journey after maintaining nearly a decade of sobriety.

Witnesses noted that Lyonne, who was seated in first class and still donned attire from the premiere, was given instructions by several flight attendants. Reports indicate that she appeared to be nodding off during the situation.

An eyewitness observed Lyonne being given instructions by multiple flight attendants, and the actress was reportedly dozing off during the mishap. 

She was heard telling flight attendants at one point: ‘Ah! You scared me!’

Natasha Lyonne was reportedly escorted off a flight after failing to respond to flight attendants asking her to turn off her laptop and fasten her seatbelt – pictured at the Euphoria season 3 premiere on April 7

Lyonne was reportedly sitting first class when she was kicked off a Delta flight; stock photo of Delta flight in 2014

The staff were eventually able to retrieve her laptop and the plane taxied onto the runway before it returned to the gate, where a Delta staffer boarded to speak to Lyonne. 

‘Ma’am, do you need medical attention?’ the staffer reportedly asked Lyonne. ‘Ma’am, I need you to come off the plane. Do you need help with your belongings?’

The captain later revealed they had dealt with a passenger unable to follow ‘basic commands’ as they addressed the more than hour-long delay with travelers. 

‘We have a passenger who for whatever reason … wouldn’t follow some basic commands … We had a passenger who didn’t seem up to the task tonight so that’s why they were asked to be booked on another flight — I do apologize for the inconvenience, but we will get you to New York as quickly and as safely as possible,’ the captain reportedly said. 

The Daily Mail has contacted a representative for Lyonne and Delta for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

The incident comes three months after she revealed she suffered a relapse.  

‘Took my relapse public, more to come,’ Lyonne told her 545.5k followers, who showered her with support.

‘Thanks, boss … for the grace, etc.,’ the actress wrote in response to one bolstering comment. ‘Sending love back your way. May become a pothead or a nun. TBD.’

The incident comes three months after Lyonne revealed she had suffered a relapse after being sober for nearly 10 years – pictured April 7

An eyewitness observed Lyonne being given instructions by multiple flight attendants, and the actress was reportedly dozing off during the mishap. She was heard telling flight attendants at one point: ‘Ah! You scared me!’ – Pictured January 4 in LA 

Lyonne didn’t give an exact time frame of when the relapse occurred or how, but she stressed that ‘recovery is a lifelong process.’

‘Anyone out there struggling, remember you’re not alone,’ her written message continued on Saturday, January 24.

‘Grateful for love and smart feet. Gonna do it for baby Bambo. Stay honest, folks. Sick as our secrets.’

The Orange is the New Black alum added: ‘If no one told ya today, I love you. No matter how far down the scales we have gone, we will see how our experience may help another. Keep going, kiddos. Don’t quit before the miracle. Wallpaper your mind with love. Rest is all noise and baloney.’

To one devotee she wrote, ‘Love ya back,’ and to another, she confided, ‘We need better systems and to end shame — bill the Sacklers and stilettos or something but don’t @ me for getting honest.’

She was referring to the notorious Sackler family, known for owning Purdue Pharma, which developed the highly addictive pain medication OxyContin and amassed billions from its sales.

Last year, the company was forced to cough up a $7.4 billion settlement for their role in the current opioid epidemic.

She then updated fans on her sobriety journey in March: ‘Proud to report this kid is doing a whole lot better & back on her feet,’ the 46-year-old actress posted to X.

Lyonne, who completed rehab in 2006, previously spoke about her downward spiral into drug and alcohol addiction in a candid interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2012.

‘Spiraling into addiction is really, really scary,’ she said. ‘Some things have a very A-to-B scientific effect. Like, alcohol is a depressant. Cocaine is a stimulant. And then: Cocaine plus heroin is bad! That’s the point of my story, that’s the moral. Coke plus heroin equals speedball. And speedball equals bad, you know?

‘It’s weird to talk about,’ she said at the time. ‘I was definitely as good as dead, you know? A lot of people don’t come back. That makes me feel wary, and self-conscious. I wouldn’t want to feel prideful about it. People really rallied around me and pulled me up by my f—ing bootstraps.’

Lyonne was making headlines in the early to mid-2000s but not the nice kind: a drunk-driving arrest, a run-in with a neighbor resulting in a court appearance, hospitalization for hepatitis C, a collapsed lung and infective endocarditis and later open-heart surgery to correct damage done.

In 2006 at age 27, she checked into an in-patient rehab for treatment for her drug and alcohol abuse.

‘Eventually, I made it through those dark nights of the soul,’ Lyonne told The Times in 2024.

Lyonne has seen a career resurgence in her 40s, and recently she has shifted her focus away from starring roles to directing, writing and producing, such as the 1980s-set boxing film Bambo.