A Spanish military pilot was killed when his plane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea during an aerial acrobatics display on Thursday.

After recovering debris from the plane off the east coast of Spain, the airforce confirmed on Twitter that the pilot was dead.

It was the third deadly air force accident in the Murcia region in six months.

Last August, a military instructor died when his plane crashed in the same area. The following month another instructor and his trainee died in another crash.