LONDON (Reuters) - British Airways said on Thursday it had apologised to one of Britain‘s few black diplomats over the way he was treated when he checked in to fly to his first overseas posting in Jamaica. The Guardian newspaper said incident occurred when British Airways staff at London‘s Gatwick airport failed to recognise Robert Reid‘s British diplomatic passport. They refused to allow him, his wife and two children to board his flight until he had given further proof of identity and the duty officer at the Foreign Office in London had vouched for his status, the newspaper said. Both British Airways and the Foreign Office said there was nothing racial about the incident, which took place on August 6. „He wasn‘t handled as well as we would have liked,“ a British Airways spokesman told Reuters. „We have apologised, but it was human error as he didn‘t appear at first sight to have the documentation he needed to have.“ The Foreign Office said the incident was the result of „a procedural handling problem and was not racially motivated“. The Guardian said Reid had formally complained to the airline about his treatment. According to latest figures, there were only 198 black or Asian faces among the Foreign Office‘s 4,187 civil servants, the newspaper said.