First officer reported receiving confusing heading assignments from separate controllers while being...

Narrative:

While I was acting as pilot flying we were issued 'direct lga' at some point during the flight. This put us nearly; on a 040 heading towards the field and we were at 4;000 ft MSL. We were approaching the airport and came within; around 5-7 miles from our clearance limit (lga) when the captain (pilot monitoring) prompted ny approach to give us instructions for after we reached lga. We were hastily given a heading and a new frequency to call. My interpretation of the heading given was 360 degrees; so I made the turn. After contacting the next frequency; the person told us we had made a wrong turn and gave us another series of headings to get us in line for the intended runway (31). Upon looking back at the event; it is possible that the previous controller gave us a 060 heading (which I mistook for 360). The 060 would have had us crossing the field still; but it would have been towards the intended approach not away from it. In the haste of the instructions given; we both questioned that the turn did not seem right but we were already with the next controller; who notified us. The event did not seem to bother the controller; he notified us then just gave us headings to get back into sequence.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: First Officer reported receiving confusing heading assignments from separate controllers while being vectored for approach and landing at LaGuardia airport.

Narrative: While I was acting as pilot flying we were issued 'direct LGA' at some point during the flight. This put us nearly; on a 040 heading towards the field and we were at 4;000 FT MSL. We were approaching the airport and came within; around 5-7 miles from our clearance limit (LGA) when the Captain (Pilot Monitoring) prompted NY approach to give us instructions for after we reached LGA. We were hastily given a heading and a new frequency to call. My interpretation of the heading given was 360 degrees; so I made the turn. After contacting the next frequency; the person told us we had made a wrong turn and gave us another series of headings to get us in line for the intended runway (31). Upon looking back at the event; it is possible that the previous controller gave us a 060 heading (which I mistook for 360). The 060 would have had us crossing the field still; but it would have been towards the intended approach not away from it. In the haste of the instructions given; we both questioned that the turn did not seem right but we were already with the next controller; who notified us. The event did not seem to bother the controller; he notified us then just gave us headings to get back into sequence.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1710366
Time
Date	201912
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	LGA.Airport
State Reference	NY
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

First officer reported receiving confusing heading assignments from separate controllers while being vectored for approach and landing at laguardia airport.