A flight attendant smashed a large bottle of red wine over the head of a passenger on Thursday during a struggle to stop the man from opening an exit door, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday.

The Delta Air Lines flight, which departed from Seattle en route to Beijing, had been in the air for about an hour when the man, identified as Joseph Daniel Hudek IV, who was seated in first class, made his way to the bathroom, the complaint said.

Mr. Hudek came out, asked a flight attendant a question, and then went back in, the complaint said. When he re-emerged, he “lunged toward the forward right exit door of the aircraft, grabbed the handle and attempted to open it.”

As Mr. Hudek wrestled with the door, the complaint said, two flight attendants tried to subdue him; Mr. Hudek punched one of the attendants twice in the face. After a passenger jumped into the fray, it was Mr. Hudek who went for the bottle of wine first, hitting the passenger “in the head with a red dessert wine bottle,” the complaint said.