Tributes are flowing in for three veteran ABC newsman who were killed when their helicopter crashed near Lake Eyre in remote outback Australia on Thursday.

Journalist Paul Lockyer, pilot Gary Ticehurst and cameraman John Bean had been working on news and feature projects near Lake Eyre when their helicopter crashed in an extremely remote area about 150km north of Marree in South Australia about 7:30pm.

Police investigators reached the site overnight but the journey took a number of hours due to bad weather and the locality of the crash site.

The incident has devestated ABC staff who have lost three well respected colleagues.