TCI News
TCI National Hero’s death still mysterious, JAGS McCartney monuments destroyed by hurricanes
#Providenciales, Turks and Caicos – Thursday, May 10, 2018 –Thirty-eight years after the sudden death of the Turks and Caicos Island’s first Chief Minister, there remains an enigmatic mystery about what really happened to JAGS McCartney. 
Facts on what caused his plane to crash over New Jersey, USA on May 9 1980 are elusive, invisible and seemingly undocumented.
What is certain is that it was an unfathomable tragedy for a nation just beginning to swap its short britches for long trousers on its way to self determination and decolonisation.
James Alexander George Smith McCartney was a different type of Turks and Caicos Islander. The 34 year old was heavily under the influence of the pushy political and civic leaders of the day. Movements and revolutions in The Bahamas and Jamaica both inspired JAGS to return to the land of his birth to turn national leadership right side up.
Some say JAGS was ahead of his time as his bold quest to dethrone British rule in the TCI was unrelenting and unheard of. Though many islanders fought against him and his ideas, JAGS fought back with a brilliant strategy that would one day lead to formation of the country’s first political party – the People’s Democratic Movement – and a Turks and Caicos where the islanders, as Cabinet Ministers called all of the shots. 
I am told that JAGS first educated his people, then agitated for reasonable rights and then documented, in a hand written new constitution, that power ought belong to the indigenous people.
Bar room napkins were where that transformative legislation was scribbled and after and all night show down involving gun fire, rock and bottling throwing and a kind kidnapping, the governor left Waterloo and gave JAGS and the people the power.
The two men signed at the iconic Junkanoo Club and set the wheels in motion for a more democratic nation.
For a reason undocumented JAGS in his fourth year as Chief Minister took a trip to New Jersey. There is no record, we could find of the type of aircraft or who was on board the small plane with JAGS.
In all of the archives of plane crashes – both massive and minute – there is nothing on our JAGS at the United States National Transportation Safety Board’s website.
One item appears to be JAGS’ crash; there are no details on the aircraft or lives lost. No names… only that it happened on May 9, 1980.
The body of the TCIs only national hero was reportedly never found. Nor was his plane. And it remains taboo to talk about the incident at home especially, but why?
Some news articles from the day suggest it may have been a failed drug smuggling attempt or a plane planned to never make it back home or a sinister plot to shush the uprising of strong, black, Caribbean people…
But there are islanders who believe JAGS was on a noble mission to bring new investment, establish food security and demonstrate that the Turks and Caicos could stand on its feet, as a successful island chain.
Today, the Rt. Excellent JAGS would have been 72-years-old if he were alive. James Alexander George Smith McCartney was the youngest democratically elected leader in history at the time, and continues to hold the record for being youngest Commonwealth country leader in history.
Many have gone on record to say that it is their firm belief that the Turks and Caicos would have a much more altered and autonomous state of being had the man lived and served longer.
On Monday May 28, 2018 the country will commemorate the only National Hero in the traditional memorial service at the National Memorial Park in Grand Turk; the day is also a public holiday.
Terribly, both the publicly owned National Memorial Park and the famous, Junkanoo Club – still owned by McCartney’s family – were badly battered in the September 2017 hurricanes: Irma and Maria.
Our images here were taken in March 2018; six months after the hurricanes.
Almost two million visitors recorded in 2025
PROVIDENCIALES, TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS – The Turks and Caicos Islands saw an increase in stayover arrivals in December, seven percent higher than the corresponding period in 2024.
Preliminary data suggests that stay over arrivals by air for the month of December was 66,427 in comparison to 62,610 in December 2024.
From January to December 2025, preliminary visitor arrival numbers totalled 640,754; on par with the number recorded for the same period of 2024.
Stay Over Arrivals YTD December 2024/2025
The first quarter of the calendar year attracted the largest number of arrivals with visitor arrivals three percent higher than the first quarter of 2024. Reduced airlift from the United Kingdom and the United States, most notably the Virgin Atlantic and JetBlue services, was however felt from the second quarter (April to June). As a result, visitor arrivals dropped three percent in the second quarter.
By the third quarter of this year (July to September), geopolitical and economic conditions in the key source markets, namely the United States, led to further contraction of arrivals. In the last quarter of 2025, arrivals were impacted in October due to the passage of Hurricane Melissa but additional airlift from the USA and Canada resulted in an increase in arrivals in November and December.
Mr. Paul Pennicook, Interim CEO Consultant of Experience Turks and Caicos, said December’s increase in stayover arrivals is an encouraging indicator of the sustained interest in the Turks and Caicos Islands as a premier destination.
“While we note and continue to monitor geopolitical shifts that affect us, Experience Turks and Caicos is focused on increasing marketing initiatives in our primary source markets. We have spent the last two years investing in groundwork such as crucial travel advisor training to assist them in selling the destination more effectively. In the next fiscal, we will be building on those initiatives with co-op activities with partners as well as out of home advertising to increase visitation to our destination,” he said.
In Cruise, the preliminary count of passenger arrivals for the month of December 2025 was 129,346, a 22 percent increase over last December. This growth follows the berthing of 11 additional ships in Grand Turk this month.
From January to December, the cruise sector continued to outperform the same period last year, as the 1.3 million total cruise passengers recorded, marks a five percent Year-on-Year increase. 
The cruise sector experienced significant growth in the first quarter of 2025, with passenger arrivals surpassing last quarter by 53 percent. In the second and third quarter however, several cruise lines adjusted their itineraries as vessels were pulled from the fleet or from the Caribbean region, which resulted in fewer passengers.
Arrivals dropped seven percent and 10 percent in the second and third quarters, respectively. Double digit growth was recorded in the last two months of Quarter 4. This growth however, was not sufficient to outweigh the drop in arrivals experienced in October, following the cancellation of cruise calls due to the passage of Hurricane Melissa. Despite the late-quarter rebound, arrivals for the final quarter of 2025 closed six percent below the same period in 2024.
News
The Department of Trade, Industry & Fair Competition to Host Export Readiness Workshop Under the theme “Empowering TCI Businesses for Local Growth and Global Markets.”
Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands – Wednesday, 11 February 2026: The Informal Settlements Unit (ISU) coordinated a multi-agency enforcement operation on Thursday, 29 January 2026, led by the Planning Department, with support from the Crown Land
Unit, the Turks and Caicos Islands Border Force, and security provided by the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force. The operation, carried out at three different locations in Providenciales, formed part of ongoing government efforts to address unauthorised development and illegal occupation of land in accordance with governing legislation.
The operation commenced in Blue Hills, where five Section 58 Enforcement Notices were issued on unauthorised structures identified on Block and Parcel 60502/48.
Enforcement activity then moved to a second location off the Leeward Highway near Caicos Lodge, where six Section 58 Enforcement Notices were issued on additional unauthorised structures on Block and Parcel 60802/66.
The final phase of the operation took place in The Bight, where three unauthorised structures were removed, with all debris cleared from the site in keeping with established safety and environmental protocols.
The Informal Settlements Unit remains committed to working alongside its partner agencies to support lawful development, protect public and private land, and ensure that planning regulations are enforced in a coordinated and transparent manner across the Turks and Caicos Islands. Similar joint operations will continue as part of the Government’s wider strategy to address unauthorised development and informal settlement activity.
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