B777 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 280; Flight Crew Total 30000; Flight Crew Type 11278
Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors
After just reaching our low initial cruising altitude due to our heavy weight; Hong Kong departure control informed us of an opposite direction unidentified aircraft primary radar return he was painting ahead of us along our airway. The aircraft was either not transponder equipped or the transponder was off so the controller was not able to provide accurate altitude information but instead passed along an estimate of the aircraft's altitude from another aircraft as being in the vicinity of 40;000 feet and he estimated its speed to be 350 knots. The aircraft was not displayed on our TCAS; but we saw its contrail directly ahead and determined that a collision was not imminent because of our low altitude. I had a clear view of what I believe was a small non swept wing single engine military drone making a single contrail; and had we been at the same altitude as this aircraft it was highly likely that that the near miss would have been measured in tens of feet or it would have been a collision. Unfortunately neither of us had the presence of mind to photograph it. When I queried the controller as to his guess of the country of origin of the drone; he did not speculate but theorized its mission was to photograph the Spratly Islands south of Hong Kong; an island group with disputed ownership claimed by China; Taiwan; Brunei; Malaysia; the Philippines and Vietnam. Based upon my observation; Taiwan was the origin of the drone if it had flown a straight line after being launched and passing us. The disturbing fact is that whomever was in control of this drone made no attempt to avoid civilian airways. I am grateful that we were heavy and not at its altitude; and also grateful that the controller was vigilant and noticed the small radar return; but I consider this to be a flagrant disregard of human life and ICAO rules of aviation; and I will be contacting ICAO and filing a protest with them directly.
B777 Captain was informed by Hong Kong Departure of an unidentified aircraft with primary radar only; opposite direction; and at an estimated altitude of 40000 feet and 350 knots. A straight wing military drone was sighted passing overhead.