B737-800
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Total 16600
Situational Awareness; Distraction
Conflict NMAC
General None Reported / Taken
Airspace Structure; Environment - Non Weather Related
During climb out from MIA; passing 11;000 ft.; 280 kts.; a refrigerator sized object passed below right side of fuselage; maybe 10-20 ft. below. No significant velocity vector perpendicular to our flight path. Object had no wings or foils and was blue and silver. No observed propellers or thrust devices. Could have been some sort of shaped balloon but did not appear to be; as it seemed to have angular geometry. Very high to be a drone and had no likeness to any drone I have ever seen.
I was pilot monitoring as we climbed out of the MIA terminal area. I don't recall the exact altitude; but believe we were approaching sterile cockpit (10;000 ft.) on a climb to 16;000 ft. My eyes were momentarily drawn inside the flight deck; to a message on my CDU; I recall it was the flight log info being printed. Suddenly the Captain; who was flying; exclaimed loudly as if greatly surprised; although no abrupt control inputs were made and the flight path remained unchanged. He asked; 'did you see that;' to which I replied I had not. He proceeded to mention seeing an object that we just barely missed; passing underneath us. He subsequently contacted Miami center and described the event; with the contact being the size of a small car; possibly blue and black in color. ATC queried the contact's direction of flight; I believe the Captain said it was either stationary or moving across our path. The Captain and ATC briefly discussed the possibility of the object being a drone; or some sort of balloon. The event happened very quickly and during a short; relatively task-busy flight. Requisite flight tasks were completed and the flight continued to destination without further incident.
B737 pilot crew reported a NMAC with a large UAV.