TIPS TO DESCRIBE PICTURES

You should try to answer the following questions:

The picture/photo shows …

This is a picture of …

In this picture I can see …

This is an incident that happened …

Where was the picture taken? on the apron, on the runway, on the
taxiway, in the air….

If on ground, the kind of airport (big, small,…) – To support your

opinion, describe the surroundings (woods, beach,…), the signs and
markings (CAT II….), the runway(s), the tower, the vehicles, the
people…

If in the air, the phase of the flight (climbing, descending, en route…) –

To support your opinion, describe the pitch, the flaps, the gear…

When was the picture taken? after an accident, while the problem was
happening…

How is the weather?

What kind of aircraft is it? If you can’t name it/them, describe

it/them (engines, body, wings, winglets, tail…., cargo, passenger………)

What part of the aircraft is shown on the picture?

What kind of damage (if any) do you see? (hole, dent, crack…) (severe,
light…)

What is happening now? (the aircraft is trying to land…, a ground

vehicle is about to cross the runway...)
What has (probably) happened? (They may have gone through a storm.
The engine must have ingested a big bird, a vulture for instance.….)

Why, in your opinion, is it happening or did it happen? (due to a rapid

decompression, because of a disruptive passenger, in order to recycle
the gear…..)

How does it compare to other accidents, incidents… you remember? (It

reminds me of the Air France accident…)

Consequences
What can or should be done about it?  (There shouldn’t be any landfill
near the airports…)
What is likely to happen in the future?
Express your opinion (In my opinion,.... I believe.... I think...

1-
I think this is a sad or quiet picture. It shows two girls waiting at an
airport. They are standing at a big window, looking out at the runway.

One of the girls, the smaller girl, has her hands against the window.
The other girl, who is about eight years old, is also standing quietly
looking out.

There aren’t any planes on the runway, only some service vehicles and
trucks bringing fuel or water or luggage.

I think the two girls have been waiting a long time for someone, maybe
their mother or father, to come, but there has been some delay.

There must be someone else with them, because they are too young to
be in the airport by themselves, so maybe the person who is taking the
picture is also waiting impatiently.

2-

In this picture we can see a Boeing 737-600 belonging to WestJet which is being deiced. It is
stopped on a taxiway or at a deicing area and we can see five deicing trucks around it which
are performing the deicing procedure.
The aircraft is white, it has the company name on the fuselage, a Canadian flag to the rear of
the fuselage and the tail has two shades of blue and well as a white line which is the company
logo.

The deicing trucks are yellow and they are all spraying liquid on to the surfaces of the aircraft.
Each truck has a boom and there is a person on each boom controlling the spray.

In the foreground of the picture all we can see is snow. The area is covered by a lot of snow
and we can just see the tracks of a vehicle that has driven through the snow.

In the background of the picture we can see the airport terminal with some gates and light
posts. Further in the background we can see the sky which is overcast and it is a very cold and
snowy day.

Deicing is necessary to remove ice and snow of the aircraft surfaces as these are very
dangerous for flight as they can change the aerodynamics of the wings and cause the aircraft
to stall. Also ice can freeze and block control surfaces causing the pilots to lose control of the
aircraft.

ICAO Level 5 Vocabulary Practice: How

To Describe Pictures?
An ICAO speaking part of a test can be a challenging and stressful situation, so when it comes
to describing pictures it’s better to keep in mind a clear structure that you’ll follow easily.
Each picture can be interpreted in a few layers – the first one consists of a description of the
undeniable facts; the second is the speculation phase and the third is the comparison. In this
article, I’ll discuss all the three areas and I’ll give you the best piece of advice how to enrich
your exam speaking timeand impress the examiners with a wisely-organized and planned
speech structure.
 1) FACTS – Describe What You See

Try to always begin with the easiest and most natural, which is the description of facts. Say
what the undeniable facts are and what everyone can see. You can surely use a few phrases in
almost every case:

Foreground versus Background

– in the foreground: the front of the composition,

– in the background: the back of the composition.

Indoors versus Outdoors

– indoors: inside a building; describe the interior and design.

– outdoors: taking place outside; describe the weather conditions.

Top versus Bottom

Probably the easiest but candidates tend to forget about them.

– “At the top”

– “At the bottom”

Corners

Are a perfect point of reference:

– “In the left corner”

– “In the right corner”

– “In the bottom left/ right corner”

– “In the top left/ right corner”

The Picture Itself

– “In the picture”

– “The picture shows”

– “The picture depicts”

– “This picture illustrates”

Use Present Continuous Tense
Use present continuous tense to describe what is happening in the picture. The example:

“The person who is sitting in the foreground seems to be an elderly woman in her min 90s. She’s wearing a
polka dot dress, yellow jacket, and black high heels.”

2) SPECULATION
Once you finished describing the facts that are presented in the picture, it’s high time to try to use your
imagination and say what could have happened and what is going to happen. The aim of this part is to express
possibility and present your ability of logical thinking followed by a plain English structure. The layer number
two is the tremendous area of speculation. It allows you to use your favorite and well-practiced grammar
structures:

The Beginning of A Sentence

– “I think… ” (my comment: well… if you really have to say, “I think”, then do it. But it’s one of the commonly
used structures. It’s not impressive at all for the examiners’ ears. Use forms that will make your speech
outstanding.)

– “I guess / I suppose…”

– “It looks as if…”

– “It seems…”

– “I’d say…”

– “Judging by his/ her appearance, he/ she seems to be…”

– “As far as I can see, this picture was taken…”

– “My intuition suggests/ tells it could be…”

Modal Verbs
– “It must be / They have to be / He may be”…
– “It must have been / She should have never brought…

Paraphrase
A paraphrase is crucial during the speaking exam. In case you realize there is a word that you don’t know or
you’ve forgotten it, never ever admit you don’t know what to say. It’s the worst thing that you can do.

Paraphrasing is saying the same but using the other words; imagine you’re playing a Taboo game 

A forgotten word is a forbidden word and you have to describe it the other way round. Even if you haven’t ever
played the Taboo game, the art of paraphrasing is really useful during the examination. Remember always to do
your best and never give up; never admit you don’t know a specific thing/ occupation, etc. Try as much as you
can and believe me, your effort will pay off.

3) COMPARISON AND EXPRESSING

YOUR OPINION
The last area of your interest should be comparing and expressing your opinion.

Similarities
If there is anything that links you somehow with the people or circumstances from the picture, emphasize it.
Find similarities between yourself and a picture. Your speech will sound more natural then.

– “Everybody who works in aviation industry should know that…”

– “This photo deals with one of the most dangerous aspects of my work…”

– “I always admired people who…”

Remind the Rules

You are allowed to invoke aviation rules and regulations.

– “According to a shortly republished ICAO amendment, all the pilots and air traffic controllers are obliged to…”

Give Your Opinion

– “In my experience…”

– “If I were in his/ her situation, I would…”

– “I wish…”

– “As far as I know…”

– “I may be wrong but…”

– “In my opinion…”
– “As far as I am concerned…”

– “I’d like to emphasize that…”

– “My personal view is that…”

– “I claim…”

Summary
To sum up, if you’re speech has a clear and organized structure, you’re more likely to pass the exam. You
eliminate chaos because you follow a clear pattern that leads you from the very beginning to the end. First of all,
concentrate on a picture and gather ideas for a short time ; then, say what is happening in the picture (present
the facts) with the support of present continuous tense  (She is bending down and holding her knees.). Secondly,
try to speculate using various tenses (She’s in her late 30s.) and imagine what has happened (It could have been
a terrorist attack.) in the past and how it could influence the future (In my opinion, these situations should be
eliminated in the future due to increasing detailed security check carried out by the airport staff.) Mix tenses
here. Never stick to just one structure because it will sound dull. It’s better to try and make a better impression
for the effort than not trying at all.

And remember non-verbal communication also contributes to the overall candidate’s impression. Smile to the
examiners and be polite 

How to describe a picture

During English tests for pilots it’s common to have to describe a picture. Sometimes the picture
might be of an accident or sometimes it might be of a bad weather situation, or sometimes it can
be of a more common, ‘normal’ situation. What’s the best way to describe a picture? Is there a
process that you can use for all types of picture?
Yes there is! Using our process to describe pictures below, you’ll be able to describe a picture
without difficulty, the only other thing you’ll need, is practice!

Picture description process

Pt. 1) Describe the picture in one sentence, give only the most important information at this stage.
You can start the description like this; this is a picture of …

Pt. 2) Describe the details in the picture, start with the most important details and then the less
important ones. This is a good opportunity to use lots of vocabulary and show the examiner what
you know.

Pt. 3) Make deductions about what you can’t see in the picture. Often this relates to part 2, when
you describe details you can make deductions at the same time. Use the language of speculation
(this could/ might be etc…)

Deductions often relate to; passengers (where they are & how they feel), the cause of the
incident/ situation, what you think is going to happen next, the weather and how it influenced the
situation, how the situation you describe will affect the area around it (the airport usually).

Example
Pt. 1 – This is a picture of a 737 which is parked on its stand (gate).

Pt. 2 & 3 – We can see that pushback tractor is close to the plane. (Pt.3) It’s probably preparing for
departure. In the mid-ground the jetway is connected to the plane (Pt.3) and the passengers might
be boarding the plane at the moment.

There is a no parking area indicated by the red markings on the ground. This is the area where the
jetway moves and as we can see in the picture, there is nothing in this area. There are three
people around the plane. One of them is moving the tow bar into position to connect it to the
pushback tractor.
(Pt. 3) I can’t see them, but the pilots might be in the cockpit preparing the flight. Normally at this
stage during a flight, they’re programming the computer for the flight and performing other
checks. This is usually a very busy time for them.

The weather looks nice in the picture, it’s sunny and I can see a shadows of the plane, the jetway
and in the foreground I can see what I think is the shadow of the terminal building.
I think that in about fifteen minutes this plane is going to pushback, taxi to the runway and then
takeoff. That’s all.

In this picture I can see a large passenger aircraft that has crashed at an airport. The
aircraft is a Boeing 777 and it belongs to British Airways because I recognise the
livery. It seems to be stopped on its belly on a runway or a taxiway. The belly and the
engines of the aircraft are on the ground. An emergency evacuation has been
performed as I can see that the emergency slides have been deployed from door one,
two and three right. I can see extensive damage to the aircraft. The engine is severely
damaged and large pieces are missing. The wing root and inner flaps are also badly
damaged. The landing gear has broken off as I can see one landing gear on the grass
area in the foreground of the picture and the aircraft is resting on its belly. Just behind
the right wing and next to the emergency slide I can see two firemen standing in their
fire protective suits, both wearing their helmets and oxygen cylinders on their backs.
At the front slide I can see another firemen bending down checking something under
the slide. In the foreground of the picture I can see a grass area. At the very front I can
see three red light that could be a papi light or a stop bar. The grass area is covered
with debris form the aircraft including one of its gears. In the background I can see an
airport terminal and building and there is one aircraft parked there as I can see the tail,
and Air France aircraft to be specific. The weather conditions are good and it seems to
be a nice sunny day. This accident could have been caused by a hard landing or a
gear collapse. In this case I actually know the cause of the accident which was a hard
landing before the beginning of the runway due to a dual English failure caused by ice
blocking the fuel lines. In this case the airport will be closed for operations until the
emergency situation is under control. After that other runways may be reopened or the
whole airport might be closed until the aircraft and debris are removed and the area
cleared of any damage. This aircraft in my opinion will be written off and will never fly
again.  

1-photo description
2-photo description
3-photo description
4-photo description
5-photo descricption
6-photo description
 Photo description

The Boeing 747 was being taxied on Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) airport from a hangar toward
a departure gate to board 319 passengers for Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), when the crew lost
directional control of the plane and it entered a monsoon drainage ditch, resulting in serious
damage to the forward airframe/nose section. None of the six crewmembers aboard were
seriously injured. The aircraft was being moved by a maintenance crew, who taxied using
only the no.1 and no.4 engines, apparently not realizing that the aircraft's braking system is
powered by hydraulic pumps powered by engines no.2 and no.3.

Picture description

 The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta had been circling for three hours in rain
 The Boeing 737 eventually touched down but suffered a hard landing
 Soekarno-Hatta Airport's north runway was closed for two hours afterwards

Passengers on a Malaysia Airlines flight suffered a bumpy landing after the tyre exploded after touching
the runway.

The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta, Indonesia, had been circling for three hours as it waited for
clearance to land in heavy rain on Tuesday.

The Boeing 737 eventually touched down just after 8pm but suffered a hard landing, which caused the
rear tyre to burst on impact

Pictures taken by the airline show the damage caused from the impact, which forced Soekarno-Hatta
Airport's north runway to close for two hours while technicians replaced the tyre.

Malaysia Airlines said in a statement: 'Malaysia Airlines flight MH725 from Kuala Lumpur experienced a
damaged tyre upon landing at Soekarno-Hatta Airport amidst heavy rain.

On 19 December 2004, a Boeing Company 737-86N aircraft, registered VH-VOH, was being operated on a
scheduled passenger flight from Melbourne, Victoria to Canberra, ACT. At about 1655 Eastern Daylight-saving
Time, while landing on runway 35, the right inboard main landing gear tyre failed.
In December 2004, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) noted an increase in the rate of tyre failures
on Boeing 737 aircraft in Australia. It was noted that all of the failed tyres were at retread level (the number of
times it had been retreaded) 4 and 5. The ATSB investigated the VH-VOH tyre failure in conjunction with these
other recent failures.
Examination by the ATSB and the tyre manufacturer found that all the tyres had failed by fatigue in the sidewall.
That fatigue was a result of cyclic flexing of the sidewall and was possibly present to some degree, but not
detected, at the last retread.
Aircraft tyres of this type had several operational measures to prevent premature failure. Those included non-
destructive inspection during the retread process, inflation pressure maintenance, and aircraft weight and speed
limitations. The ATSB found that changes could be made by the aircraft operator and retread facility to improve
the pressure maintenance and inspections during retread.
As a result of this investigation, safety improvements have been made by the aircraft manufacturer, aircraft
operator and tyre retread facility to improve the life and reliability of the retreaded tyres. The United States
Federal Aviation Administration is reviewing the certification requirements for the tyres and retread packages to
include improved reliability programs.
Even if worn out or old, a tire will not burst. Large high performance airplane tires have something
called a fuse plug which will release pressure from the tires and deflate them before they explode. This
happens usually when pilot applies heavy amounts of breaking (increases temperature) in situations
like an abnormally fast landing or a rejected take off.

This picture shows the burst tyre which forced a Flybe passenger plane to divert as the runway at
Birmingham Airport was closed.
Flight 1274, from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Manchester, was forced to divert to the city due to
the emergency.

Fire engines immediately surrounded the plane, which was carrying 76 passengers, as inbound flights
circled in the air above the Solihull-based airport.
The flight landed safely and there were no reported injuries, a spokeswoman for the airport told 

Birmingham Airport runway was closed for half an hour while the stricken aircraft landed and was
towed away by emergency vehicles.

It reopened soon after 4pm and passengers on board the flight were taken by coach to Manchester
instead.
A spokesman for Flybe said that the emergency landing was made as a “precautionary measure to
take into consideration more favourable wind conditions”.

“The aircraft landed safely without incident and, as is normal in such circumstances, the airport put its
emergency vehicles on standby.

Usually mechanical error is very rare with landing gear failing to deploy as there are multiple
rundancy systems for the motors. Some mechanical failures have been due to mechanic
error. For example C-GTXW one of Buffalo airways C-46 had its front landing gear collapse
due to a hammer being stuck in the strut. The same airline also suffered a landing gear
failure on one of their l-188 Electra’s. This was believed to be caused by repeated landings
on a rough ice strip. It was only one of the 3 landing gears that didn’t extend and despite
repeated attempts to “knock it down” by doing touch and goes it never came down.

The main cause of it is human error. This is very rare nowadays as of alarms will sound if the
plane is in a landing configuration and the gear isn’t extended. The DC-6 had an alarm that
sounded if the throttles were reduced to near idle. A goood example of pilot error is the
Buffalo airways Cl-215 that was being flown by trainees in Turkey. It landed without the gear
extended due to pilot error.

While officials are still investigating what caused the landing gear to malfunction, the
explanation from LOT is that the crew had problems deploying the landing gear's
hydraulic pressure system. But in that case, what happened to the backup system that's
designed to account for these kinds of situations? Patrick Smith, an airline pilot who
writes for Salon.com gives his assessment of what might have happened and why the
accident points to a potentially troubling scenario.