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A HELICOPTER carrying four people working with a French research station has disappeared in bad weather in Antarctica after sending a distress beacon, French authorities say.

It had taken off from a ship, the Astrolabe, which works out of Hobart helping to resupply the Dumont d'Urville station and rotate its staff through Australia.

The missing helicopter was carrying the pilot, a mechanic and two staff from the French Polar Institute Paul-Emile Victor. The beacon was sent from an ice field about 60 nautical miles from the Dumont-d'Urville station in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, the territory's administration said.

Deteriorating weather forced back a second helicopter sent to the area to search for the missing chopper and its passengers, but the operation would resume in the daylight, depending on the conditions, it said.

"Taking into account that radio contact cannot be established because of the bad weather and the reach of the radio frequency (VHF) being limited to the ground, there is no news about the four people on board," the statement said.

The ship is situated off the edge of the ice field, about 370 kilometres from Australia, and the distress beacon was about 150 nautical miles from the vessel, the statement said.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority was notified shortly after 9pm (AEDT) on Thursday, and has been co-ordinating the search efforts since.

AMSA spokeswoman Tracey Jiggins said a RAAF jet would be sent to the area to look for the crew this evening, after a fruitless effort by a US Air Force jet this morning.

"That aircraft was overhead for about an hour," Ms Jiggins told AAP.

"They were unable to make any communication with the helicopter."

Australia's Antarctic research vessel the Aurora Australis has been diverted but is still at least four days away, while the Astrolabe is ice-locked, Ms Jiggins said.

Weather conditions are hampering a search made already difficult because of the remote location, she said.

"There's no possibility of any helicopters flying today, so our primary aim is to establish communications with the helicopter," Ms Jiggins said.

"We want to find out what sort of condition they're in and if they're okay.

"The last radar tracking of the helicopter had it flying low and slow, so we're hopeful that means the weather was just coming in they just landed because they couldn't see.

"But until we can establish communications with them, we just don't know."

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Bodies found in Antarctica French helicopter crash

An Australian plane searching for survivors of a French helicopter crash in Antarctica has spotted three bodies, French officials say.
The fate of the fourth person on board the helicopter was not known.
It had crashed in poor weather carrying a pilot, mechanic and two staff from a French polar research station.
A distress beacon was activated late on Thursday, triggering the search, about 100km (62 miles) from France's Dumont-d'Urville research base.
The AS350 Squirrel helicopter had taken off from the supply ship L'Astrolabe, about 370km north-east of the research station.
Another helicopter at the base could not join the search because of poor visibility in the area, said French officials.
The officials said the Australian searchers saw a wide debris field from the crash.
"The teams report seeing debris scattered over 150m (164 yards), which indicates a strong impact with the ground," said a statement from the French authority that administers the country's southern overseas territories.
The Australian search plane dropped survival equipment at the crash site.
Before the three bodies were spotted the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said there were "no signs that anyone has survived the impact of the crash".

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Winter ops in the Arctic -35 deg or less, stupidly strong winds and 24hr darkness. Pretty harsh. If you are going to fly around in poor weather, learn to use instruments to get yourself out of the **** and never lose your back door.

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