Mary Margaret Colliver, a spokeswoman for the UK Hospital, said Kentucky State Police indicated that all four people aboard the aircraft had died.

Colliver said the four victims included two pilots, a flight nurse and a paramedic. The victims' names were not immediately available. There were no patients aboard, she said.

A state police dispatcher in Hazard confirmed that the crash resulted in casualties, but said he didn't know how many.

The helicopter was one of two operated by UK Hospital. Since October, it has been flying daily from Lexington to the Jackson airport, where it is stationed throughout the day to better serve Eastern Kentucky, Colliver said.

Then each night, the helicopter returns to Lexington.

``That's what we always do, that's routine,'' Colliver said.

The helicopter lifted off from the Jackson airport shortly after 10 p.m. yesterday. Shortly after that, airport officials lost contact with the aircraft, Colliver said. The Sikorsky S-76 was headed back to Lexington for the night.

Colliver said she didn't know how much the helicopter had flown yesterday.

The helicopter, leased from Petroleum Helicopters Inc., was one of two used by the UK Hospital to transport patients.

The helicopter was based in Jackson, where it was in service 12 hours a day, seven days a week, Colliver said. The Eastern Kentucky service was added last October by the UK Hospital, she said.

State police Trooper Tim Mullins said the wreckage was so bad that authorities had a difficult time identifying the aircraft.

``It's completely destroyed,'' he said.

Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration were headed to the crash site, he said.