Tomica Adams: The Airline Pilot Competing on The Traitors: New Blood

Written By OpenThreadNews Editorial Team Reviewed Under Editorial Standards

Updated on: September 7, 2026
Reading Time: 5 minutes

Tomica Adams is a United Airlines captain and one of 22 civilian contestants on NBC’s The Traitors: New Blood. She has spent nearly three decades in commercial aviation, flying Boeing 737s, 757s, 767s and 777s, and now brings that same career, built on managing people and pressure at the same time, into a very different kind of high-stakes environment.

At 54, Adams is very likely the second-oldest contestant in the published New Blood cast, behind 65-year-old Sherry Kuehl. She’s framed her approach to the game less around detecting lies and more around what her cockpit experience has taught her about managing people, opinions and emotions under pressure, along with a self-described “mama role” she expects to settle into among the group.

Quick Facts


Full name	Tomica Adams (public/cast name); some professional sources give a fuller name, noted with caution below
Age	54, per official Traitors cast material
Hometown	Boston, Massachusetts
Current public location	Raleigh, North Carolina
Profession	Commercial airline captain, United Airlines
Pilot background	Central Washington University Flight Technology program, graduated 1996; flight instructor, demonstration pilot, Continental Airlines, now United Airlines captain
Aircraft flown	Boeing 737, 757, 767, 777
Other role	Vice chair, Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals board of directors
Traitors status	Contestant, The Traitors: New Blood; Faithful or Traitor not yet revealed

Who Is Tomica Adams?

Adams was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, which she also lists as her hometown for The Traitors: New Blood. According to her Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals biography, she became interested in flying as a child during family trips between Boston and Wilmington, North Carolina, watching pilots find the runway and land smoothly and wondering how they did it.

Her mother later relocated to the Pacific Northwest, and Adams moved there as well. She initially pursued engineering, studying at Purdue University’s School of Engineering, before her growing interest in aviation overtook that path. She went on to graduate from Central Washington University’s Flight Technology program in 1996. Some sources also describe her as a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, though that detail is single-sourced.

Tomica Adams’ Career as a Pilot

After graduating in 1996, Adams spent three years building flight hours as a flight instructor. She then worked as a demonstration pilot for Raytheon Aircraft Company, flying the company’s civilian Beechcraft aircraft. One account adds a subsequent stint with Flight Options, type-rated in the Beechjet 400A, though that detail hasn’t been independently confirmed.

She joined Continental Airlines, reportedly around 2006, and continued with the airline through its merger into United, where she now holds the rank of captain. Over her career she has flown the Boeing 737, 757, 767 and 777. Beyond flying, she works to support pilot recruitment and hiring for United, and serves as vice chair of the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals’ board of directors.

Adams is also publicly known as one of a small number of Black women airline pilots in the United States. A 2022 ABC11 report described her as one of fewer than 150 professional Black female pilots in the country at that time, a figure specific to that report rather than a current count. The same profile described her discussing the reactions she gets from passengers who are surprised to learn she’s the pilot, including assumptions some make about women and Black professionals in aviation.

What Flying Taught Tomica About Pressure

Adams has described her job in direct terms: “I know how to work with people. My job helps me work better with people and manage people and their opinions, their feelings, everything,” according to Entertainment Weekly’s cast material, as reproduced by Boston-area reporting.

That’s a meaningful claim coming from an airline captain specifically. Commercial pilots are responsible for coordinating a flight crew, managing passenger concerns, communicating clearly under time pressure, and making consequential decisions with incomplete information, all skills that plausibly translate to navigating a group of unfamiliar personalities under stress. Jay Vinnedge, another contestant whose military and medical career involved high-stakes decisions under pressure, offers a similar profession-to-game bridge, though each is drawing on a different kind of professional pressure.

That said, managing a cockpit and crew is not the same skill as detecting deception among strangers playing a social game, and this connection should be read as editorial analysis rather than something Adams has explicitly claimed herself.

Tomica’s “Mama Role” on The Traitors

Adams has described herself as a “September baby” and said she wants control, and expects to settle into something like a “mama role” among the other contestants. The exact original interview establishing that phrasing hasn’t been independently located for this profile, so it’s presented here as her general self-characterization rather than a verified direct quote.

That framing suggests she sees herself as an organizing, stabilizing presence in the house, though whether that becomes a genuine position of trust or simply makes her a more visible presence is something only the episodes themselves can confirm.

Tomica Adams on The Traitors: New Blood

Adams is one of 22 civilian contestants on The Traitors: New Blood, part of a season NBC and Peacock have said drew more than 80,000 applicants overall. Available pre-season material doesn’t detail whether she applied or was recruited, or establish a stated preference for playing as a Faithful or a Traitor.

Her self-declared cast superlative is “Most Likely to Cry When Laughing.” NBC has not revealed her actual role ahead of the September 17, 2026 premiere. For a full breakdown of how the Traitor and Faithful format works, see The Traitors Explained. For the full cast list, see The Traitors: New Blood Cast, and once the season airs, results will be tracked on The Traitors: New Blood Episodes.

Tomica Adams’ Age and Experience

Adams is 54, according to official Traitors cast material. At that age, she is very likely the second-oldest contestant in the published New Blood cast, behind 65-year-old Sherry Kuehl, though that comparison is specific to this season’s published ages, not a claim about the franchise’s full history.

Beyond the number itself, Adams brings nearly three decades of professional experience into a cast of mostly younger contestants, life experience she’s connected to her stated desire for control and her expectation of taking on a caretaking role in the house.

Personal Life

Adams has publicly identified as a mother; a 2022 ABC11 profile described her son, Langston, as 12 years old at the time. Public sources do not confirm her marital status, a partner, or other family details, so none of that is stated here.

Where Tomica Adams Stands Now

Adams built a nearly three-decade aviation career, from flight instructor to demonstration pilot to United Airlines captain, and has used that platform to advocate for greater representation among Black women in commercial flying. The Traitors: New Blood puts the same composure and people-management skills she’s built in the cockpit into an entirely different kind of pressure test. This section will be updated once the season airs, with her actual role and how her run in the game played out tracked in full on The Traitors: New Blood Episodes.