Search continues for French chopper

Australian authorities are co-ordinating a search for a helicopter carrying four French nationals which disappeared in Antarctica.

The AS350 Squirrel helicopter had taken off from a ship, the Astrolabe, carrying four French nationals - the pilot, a mechanic and two staff from the French Polar Institute, Paul-Emile Victor.

It disappeared in bad weather on Thursday evening, and a distress 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 Australian Maritime Safety Authority was notified shortly after 9pm AEDT on Thursday, and have 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 on Friday evening, after a fruitless effort by a US Air Force jet on Friday 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."

- AAP