Narrative:

The event took place on the OOSHN4 arrival into bos just after crossing the fluti fix while in communications with boston approach control. The autopilot was engaged. Before reaching the initial arrival fix ooshn; ATC issued the clearance to decent via the OOSHN4 arrival. Upon crossing fluti with the VNAV armed the plane began to decent below 9;000 feet to cross ggabe at 6;000 feet. Just below 9;000 feet ATC issued a right turn to a heading of 280 and decent to 6;000 feet. The crew complied with instructions and placed the airplanes navigation panel in 'heading mode;' then commanded the turn to a heading of 280 while continuing the decent to 6;000 feet. At 7;500 feet ATC called us and told us the altitude assigned was 9;000 feet. ATC then issued a second clearance to a heading of 320 descent 6;000 feet. All ATC instructions were repeated back to ATC when received.ATC repeatedly called us [the wrong call sign; X;] and had to correct himself many times during the course of this event. There was many other aircraft communication during this event including a call sign of X referring to another aircraft. It is my belief that the ATC controller became task saturated and lost his situational awareness. In doing so; his communications to several airplanes including ours became confusing. Both pilots involved in this event agreed that they heard the same instructions. The ATC controller was removed from the radio and another controller continued issuing clearances. We were vectored during the remaining of the approach until cleared for the ILS 4R into bos. We landed without further incident.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Corporate Jet flight crew reported receiving conflicting ATC instructions on the OOSHN4 arrival into BOS.

Narrative: The event took place on the OOSHN4 arrival into BOS just after crossing the FLUTI fix while in communications with Boston Approach Control. The autopilot was engaged. Before reaching the initial arrival fix OOSHN; ATC issued the clearance to decent via the OOSHN4 arrival. Upon crossing FLUTI with the VNAV armed the plane began to decent below 9;000 feet to cross GGABE at 6;000 feet. Just below 9;000 feet ATC issued a right turn to a heading of 280 and decent to 6;000 feet. The crew complied with instructions and placed the airplanes navigation panel in 'heading mode;' then commanded the turn to a heading of 280 while continuing the decent to 6;000 feet. At 7;500 feet ATC called us and told us the altitude assigned was 9;000 feet. ATC then issued a second clearance to a heading of 320 descent 6;000 feet. All ATC instructions were repeated back to ATC when received.ATC repeatedly called us [the wrong call sign; X;] and had to correct himself many times during the course of this event. There was many other aircraft communication during this event including a call sign of X referring to another aircraft. It is my belief that the ATC controller became task saturated and lost his situational awareness. In doing so; his communications to several airplanes including ours became confusing. Both pilots involved in this event agreed that they heard the same instructions. The ATC controller was removed from the radio and another controller continued issuing clearances. We were vectored during the remaining of the approach until cleared for the ILS 4R into BOS. We landed without further incident.

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.