Medium Large Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Confusion; Distraction
Airspace Violation All Types; Conflict NMAC; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Procedure; Human Factors
While climbing through FL240 to level at FL250; our aircraft was nearly hit by a man made object which looked to be a drone. It was black and silver in appearance with some kind of light on it and looked to be approximately 2-3 feet in diameter. We were flying the RNAV departure with the autopilot engaged. Our approximate heading at the time of the incident was approximately 063 and the object appeared to come at us at a 45-degree angle; crossing in front of the cockpit from left to right; missing the aircraft by 200-300 feet at our altitude. I am unsure of how fast the object was moving; but we were climbing at 290kts IAS.  The First Officer was the pilot flying; and did not see the object. We were in radar contact and talking with Fort Worth Center and the sighting was promptly reported to them; at which time they alerted other aircraft in the area of the object. They had no track on the object; and our aircraft never generated a TCAS alert. I was quite shocked to see something like this at that altitude; I had no idea that something that size could be up that high.
Air carrier Captain climbing through FL240 reported a near miss with a UAS approximately 2-3 feet in diameter.