A military spokesman has defended a training exercise that meant no search and rescue helicopters were stationed in central Newfoundland when a helicopter ferrying offshore oil workers crashed in the ocean 55 kilometres east of St. John's.

"Training is essential for our operations," said Col. Paul Drover, speaking at an inquiry into offshore helicopter safety in St. John's Thursday. "We do have a policy of maintaining standby aircraft."

On March 12, all three of the military's Gander-based helicopters were in Nova Scotia for a training exercise.

"The helicopters were there for an essential piece of training. It's an approved activity," said Drover. "It is extremely important that we train our crews. Without training they can't do their jobs."

Drover said the helicopters in Cape Breton were 30 minutes closer to Newfoundland than if they had been at the base in Greenwood, N.S., near Halifax.

In the days following the crash last March, a military official said the training exercise meant that it took helicopters an hour longer to reach the crash site than normal because they were not on base in Gander.

A Cougar helicopter was the first chopper to reach the crash site. Its search and rescue crew pulled the sole survivor from the ocean. Seventeen other people on the helicopter died.

Since the Cougar crash, there have been calls to improve St. John's-based search and rescue services.

Cougar Helicopters, the company that transports oil industry workers offshore, is contracted by oil companies operating in the province's offshore oilfields to provide St. John's-based search and rescue capability.

Cougar refits its Sikorsky S-92A helicopters to do searches when they get a call. The company doesn't have a helicopter dedicated solely to search and rescue work, and cannot perform such operations after dark.

The inquiry, led by retired Supreme Court judge Robert Wells, was established in the months following the deadly crash following calls to improve search and rescue capabilities.