The US government and the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) have apologised for mistakenly barring Biman's New York-bound flight from entering American airspace on Sunday, as Biman Bangladesh Airlines is considering legal options to seek compensation from the FAA.()

Robert Sturgell, deputy administrator of the FAA, called Shamser M Chowdhury, Bangladesh ambassador in Washington, over telephone on Tuesday and apologised on behalf of the FAA administrator and the US government for the mistake, according to a massage received in Dhaka yesterday.

The misdirected action of the Air Traffic Operators (ATC) of the FAA diverted the Biman flight BG-011 from New York to Montreal.

"It was a pure case of an error and a mistake," the message quoted the FAA deputy administrator as telling the diplomat, adding that they sincerely apologised for the mistake.

He also assured that necessary measures have been taken to ensure that such a mistake is not repeated in future.

Reports said the FAA mistakenly barred the New York-bound flight from landing at the JFK Airport for "security reasons".

The flight with 259 passengers aboard left Zia International Airport at 8:20am (BST) on Saturday for New York and was scheduled to land at JFK Airport at 6:30am (BST) on Sunday.

The plane returned to Dhaka from Canada on Monday night and left for Jeddah early Tuesday.

Vice-president (Systems Operation) of FAA in another telephonic conversation earlier had told the Bangladesh ambassador that the incident was under investigation for ascertaining the actual reasons, according to a Biman press release.