A light plane with 19 people aboard crashed late last night near the Mexican tourist resort of Chichen Itza in the state of Yucatan, civil aviation authorities said.
It was not immediately clear why the Czech-made LET-410 crashed in a field five minutes after taking off from Chichen Itza, the airport administrator said.
The tourists were heading back to their cruise ship, which had docked earlier in the day in Cozumel, a Mexican island 140 kilometres (90 miles) away, a spokesman for the small AeroFerinco airline said.
He said the 17 US nationals and two Mexican pilots aboard the small plane had all died in the crash.