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A helicopter carrying two Australians and a New Zealander has gone missing in Papua New Guinea.

THE Bell 206 helicopter, operated by Hevilift Ltd, went missing on Friday afternoon near Mt Hagen in the PNG Southern Highlands.

There were two Australians and one New Zealander on board, all Hevilift employees, the company said.

"An immediate air search was initiated by Hevilift, with all available aircraft" continuing the search on Saturday morning, the company said in a statement

The company said it was in contact with the families of the employees.

Hevilift Group Managing Director, Paul Booij, is on his way to Mt Hagen.

Comment is being sought from PNG's Civil Aviation and Safety Authority (CASA).

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Yaqub Amaki from PNG's Civil Aviation Safety Authority says the chopper was flying near Mt Hagen.

"It was coming in from InterOil, one of the sites into Hagen and halfway through Hagen it actually went down and at the moment we don't know the status of the three," he said.

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Rescuers are continuing to search for the wreckage of the missing Bell 206 chopper, operated by Hevilift Ltd, which went missing on Friday afternoon near Mt Hagen.

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PNG aviation officials said the chopper was thought to have gone down at Kikori, a densely wooded and oil-rich settlement at the head of the Gulf of Papua, but they were yet to find any wreckage and could not confirm fatalities.

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The New Zealander who was with two Australians when the helicopter they were on went missing in Papua New Guinea's highlands has been named as Antony Annan.

Charter company Hevilift Ltd tonight released the name of the 49-year-old, who was a deputy chief pilot in the company's rotary wing.

Also missing are chief pilot Russel Aitken, 42, and a second Australian who the company declined to name due to the wishes of his family.

Seven helicopters and several aircraft were today searching a rugged jungle-clad area highlands but there was no sign of the three men or the Bell 206 helicopter they were flying in when they went missing on Friday afternoon near Mt Hagen in the Southern Highlands.

Hevilift said a mayday call was broadcast approximately five minutes after it departed an InterOil Drill Rig site 3.25pm (local PNG time) on Friday.

It was believed they were heading to Hou Creek to re-fuel and then were to return to their main base at Mt Hagen.

"The conditions at the time were believed to be low cloud with reduced visibility but visual meteorological conditions existed."

That meant they were flying on sight rather than instruments.

Hevilift said a specially equipped Dornier 328 fixed wing airplane from Australia would conduct electronic surveillance in the search area.

Hevilift Managing Director, Paul Booij, arrived in Mt Hagen yesterday and praised the efforts of all Hevilift personnel, rescue and government officials and private operators in the area assisting in the search.

"We are devastated that our colleagues are missing. But the response of the local Hevilift team has been immediate and is ongoing. We are all doing everything we can and we are humbled at the response by others to assist us in the search.

"We are in constant communication with the families and are assisting them in any way we can. I cannot begin to imagine what they are going through, it must be just harrowing.

"Everyone here, in this rescue, has their own families and we all know that we cannot let up in our efforts to locate our colleagues," said Mr Booij.

PNG has a grim record for aircraft and shipping disasters, in part to do with the extraordinary terrain they have to operate over.

Last year a New Zealand pilot was among four survivors of an Airlines PNG plane which crashed, killing 28 people.

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