Three people aboard a Southern Lakes Helicopters helicopter that went missing in the Subantarctic Islands last night have been found safe and well.

The company's owner Sir Richard Hayes located the trio - pilot Andrew Hefford, paramedic John Lambeth and winch operator Lester Stevens - on a beach this morning.

Southern Lakes Helicopters operations manager Lloyd Matheson said Sir Richard flew one of three additional helicopters that went south this morning to assist with the search. He was first to arrive and reported all three were "on a beach safe and sound".

Mr Matheson said no details were available yet on exactly what had happened. All he could confirm was that, on descent to Enderby Island around 7.30pm yesterday, communications with the machine were lost. The crew had carried four means of communications but nobody had been able to make contact via any of them, Mr Matheson said.

The helicopter had been deployed to assist with a medical evacuation of a person from a ship near Macquarie Island. The plan was for the crew to stay the night on Enderby Island and rendezvous with the ship which was travelling towards them at first light this morning. They had gone last night because a storm was forecast and they wanted to stay ahead of the weather, Mr Matheson said.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion had been sent overnight to listen for any emergency beacon activations.

Mr Matheson, who was originally supposed to be the winch operator on that flight but had swapped shifts with Mr Stevens, said fishing boats had been quick to assist with the search but had been unable to get close to the beaches so it was Sir Richard who was the first to be able to spot them.