A missing couple who spent two days being stalked by a crocodile after their vehicle was swept away has been airlifted to safety.

The pair, aged in their 50s, spent three days stranded in the Gulf Country northwest of Staaten River National Park in Queensland after their four-wheel-drive washed away in crocodile-infested flood waters.

The couple told rescuers they were stalked by a giant crocodile for two nights as they endured 40C heat with no food, drinking only from the river.

The couple had tried to drive through a river crossing when their vehicle was overcome by a large wave of floodwater.

They told rescuers they had to scramble out the passenger window to escape, with the male driver swimming back into the vehicle to free their two dogs.

Without phones, the couple said they wrote two large SOS signs in the dirt.

A friend reported them missing on Saturday after they failed to arrive in Kowanyama after setting off from Normanton on Thursday.

A LifeFlight rescue crew took off from Mount Isa base on Saturday morning and located the couple and their dogs after seeing the SOS sign.

The pilot was able to land the chopper on the road beside a river before Queensland Ambulance Service flight paramedics assessed the patients.