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| The Traitors: New Blood’s Tomica Adams Now Works as a United Airlines Captain. |
Tomica Adams is still flying high after her time on NBC’s The Traitors: New Blood, but her life away from the castle is arguably just as interesting. The season 1 contestant is an airline captain at United Airlines, a role she reached after years of building flight hours, teaching aspiring pilots and working her way through the aviation industry. She has also remained involved with the Organisation of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP), while balancing her career with motherhood, travel and a rather busy social life.
Adams joined The Traitors: New Blood season 1 as one of 22 civilian contestants brought to a lavish castle in the Scottish Highlands. The basic problem was wonderfully simple and mildly stressful: the Faithfuls had to work out who among them were secretly Traitors before being eliminated themselves. Adams, however, arrived with a rather different ambition. She wanted to be on the other side of the table.
From her introduction on the train, Adams made it clear that she was highly competitive and determined to win. She spoke about the obstacles she had overcome and how those experiences had made her more persistent. By the time she reached the castle, there was little mystery about her goal. She told the host she intended to leave as the winner, which is certainly one way to introduce yourself before everyone starts plotting against everyone else.
Her wish to become a Traitor eventually came true when she was selected as the second Traitor, joining Joe Vanella, who had already been chosen. Adams immediately had to switch from hopeful contestant to professional secret-keeper, although apparently the excitement was rather difficult to hide. She reassured another contestant that she was a Faithful before discovering that Joe was her fellow Traitor during their night meeting.
Adams was visibly thrilled by the discovery and believed the pair could work well together because of their similar instincts and energy. They later selected Katie Fites and Xavier Scruggs as accomplices, with Adams gradually questioning whether the two would actually prove themselves capable in their new roles. Being handed a secret role, as it turned out, did not automatically come with a guarantee that everyone around you would suddenly become a strategic mastermind.
Away from reality television, Adams has spent decades building an aviation career that began with a childhood fascination with aircraft. She grew up in Mattapan, Massachusetts, and graduated from Framingham South High School before initially enrolling at Purdue University's School of Engineering. Her interest eventually shifted away from engineering and towards aviation, leading her to the University of Washington in 1992.
After a year there, Adams transferred to Central Washington University, where she studied Flight Technology and eventually earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1996. Rather than immediately stepping into the cockpit of a major airline, she spent several years working as a flight instructor and accumulating the flight hours needed to progress. She also took on part-time work along the way, because apparently becoming an airline captain requires more than simply looking confident next to an aircraft.
Her professional path took another step forward after she attended an Organisation of Black Aerospace Professionals conference in 1998, later becoming a member. In June 2000, she joined Raytheon as a pilot and remained there until May 2002. The following month, she moved to Flight Options, where she worked as a pilot until July 2006.
Adams then joined United Airlines in August 2006, beginning another major chapter of her aviation career. Over the years, she has also contributed to pilot recruitment and hiring, giving her experience beyond simply operating aircraft. In 2022, that long career reached another significant milestone when she was promoted to Captain at United Airlines, a position she continues to hold.
Her involvement in aviation extends beyond her airline role. Adams is also Vice Chairperson of the OBAP Board of Directors and is part of Sisters of the Skies, an organisation focused on representing and supporting Black women in aviation.
That side of her career gives her platform on The Traitors an interesting extra layer: the competitive instincts viewers saw in the castle are backed by a professional life built around discipline, preparation and years of persistence.
Adams also remains active on Instagram, where she has more than 2.7K followers. Her account gives glimpses into her professional world as well as her life outside the cockpit. In September 2026, she shared information about an upcoming DJ event scheduled for September 20 at PBR Cowboy Bar in Cary, North Carolina, proving that her calendar apparently has room for considerably more than flight schedules and reality-show strategy.
Motherhood is another important part of Adams' life. She is a proud mother to her son, Langston Adams, and regularly shares moments from their relationship. In April 2026, she celebrated his 17th birthday with an affectionate message describing him as the “frustrating sunshine” of her life. The description was clearly meant with love, but it also sounds like the sort of brutally honest parental review teenagers everywhere would prefer not to receive publicly.
Adams and Langston have spent time together taking photographs and attending football games, giving her plenty of opportunities to enjoy life away from work. She also reached a personal milestone in May 2026 when she moved into a new home, adding another change to an already eventful year.
Travel is another big part of Adams' life, and her social media reflects her enthusiasm for getting away whenever the opportunity appears. She travelled to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic in June 2022, enjoying time by the beach, before heading to Jamaica with friends in November 2024. In June 2025, she visited Cancún, Mexico, taking in the coastline and atmosphere. Between flying professionally and travelling personally, Adams seems to have developed a fairly convincing argument for not spending too much time sitting still.
She also spends plenty of time with friends, including visits to restaurants and bars, while continuing to share pieces of her personal life online. Adams has additionally been open about her political views, although those views sit alongside rather than define the broader picture of her life. Her public presence is ultimately a mix of aviation, family, travel, friendships and the occasional reality-TV appearance that puts her competitive side under a rather unforgiving spotlight.
Tomica Adams is one of those reality-show contestants whose life outside the programme arguably gives the television storyline a much bigger context. The Traitors showed viewers someone eager to compete, but her career reveals where that determination came from. Becoming an airline captain after starting with a childhood fascination with aircraft is a considerably longer game than surviving a few Round Tables.
There is also something amusing about watching a professional pilot enter a castle where the biggest danger is not turbulence but somebody deciding they do not like your facial expression. Her ability to juggle aviation, motherhood, travel, friendships and television makes her post-show story feel more substantial than the usual “where are they now?” update.
She clearly has plenty happening beyond the programme, and that makes her worth following even after the castle doors have closed. Did you watch Tomica's Traitors journey? Share your thoughts on her strategy and what surprised you most.