MANSFIELD — An 18-year-old flight student and his teacher were killed Saturday after their single-engine plane crashed nose-first into the ground at Mansfield Municipal Airport, authorities said.

Julian Lattermann of Dover and instructor-pilot Sydney ­Miti, 32, of Waltham were killed on impact around 12:30 p.m., a little more than an hour after they took off from Norwood Airport, Mansfield police said in a statement Saturday night.

A radio transmission from the plane, a 2002 Cessna 172S owned by Horizon Aviation of Norwood, indicated it missed its approach while trying to land on a runway.