American Airlines passenger caught looking at very offensive text on his phone by eagle-eyed person sat across from him

An American Airlines passenger was reported to cabin crew after an eagle-eyed fellow traveler allegedly spotted a deeply offensive antisemitic message on his phone during a flight from Miami to New York.

The man appeared to be exchanging messages with a colleague about a business deal when another passenger sitting nearby caught sight of the conversation on his screen.

But what appeared to be an otherwise routine work exchange allegedly took an ugly turn when the traveler was seen writing that he would 'take care of the k*ke once and for all.'

The slur - a highly derogatory term for a Jewish person - immediately alarmed the passenger who spotted it which was posted online on Sunday.

Cabin crew aboard the American Airlines flight from Miami International Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport were subsequently alerted to what had allegedly been written.

A report was also reportedly filed with the Federal Aviation Administration over the incident.

It was not immediately clear what the man meant by the phrase 'take care of,' who he was allegedly referring to, or whether the language amounted to anything beyond an offensive private message.

There is also no suggestion that the passenger made a threat against anyone aboard the aircraft or that the alleged message was connected to the flight itself.

Based on the portions of the text exchange that were visible, the man's first name appeared to be Bo.

The episode sparked a debate online not only over the shocking language allegedly used, but over whether a fellow passenger should have been reading, photographing or publicizing another person's private messages in the first place.

Some were appalled by the alleged antisemitic slur and argued that a message visible to strangers in the confines of an airplane cabin could hardly be considered completely private.

Others said that no matter how offensive the words may have been, secretly capturing another person's private correspondence and exposing it publicly crossed a line.

'A private person’s private communication is not fair game for public exposure simply because its contents are offensive,' one person wrote in response to the incident.

'There is a fundamental difference between confronting public speech and policing private conversations. You should strongly consider deleting this.'

Another critic similarly argued that the alleged message, while offensive, was still part of a private exchange that had never been intended for the surrounding passengers.

'This is ridiculous. Obviously he doesn't love Jews, but how many of you here have written PRIVATE texts to others referring to some groups of people with derogatory terms??' the person wrote.

'This is not communist Russia (yet) where we spy on what people say in private. Antisemitism is real, but it's not doing us any favors to go after people and their private conversations.'

A third person expressed disbelief that a passenger's phone screen had apparently become the subject of scrutiny from someone sitting nearby.

'So now you can’t even text in public without some nut job recording your conversation??? How do they know exactly what this man was referring too??? Insane,' they wrote.

But others took precisely the opposite view, arguing that anyone displaying inflammatory language on a phone screen while surrounded by strangers on an aircraft runs the risk of somebody seeing it.

One commenter invoked the familiar 'see something, say something' mantra to defend the passenger who sounded the alarm.

'I respectfully disagree. He was in a public space close enough for others to read an offensive text,' the person wrote.

'In todays world people are told "See something, Say something". That is precisely what was done.'

The Daily Mail has contacted American Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration for further information.