I believe that is the case.
Cougar were (and still) only contracted for one SAR helicopter, so a partial crew on the second aircraft dispatched shouldn't be a surprise, as its dispatch was more than could be expected.
What is a surprise is that first Cougar SAR aircraft loitered waiting for the second, putting the survivor at risk, either because it was unable to retrieve its SAR Tech or so as to transfer a crewman to the second helicopter (even though the military Cormorants were on their way).
THis was the second accident in 2009 where Cougar's SAR servive came into question (the other being the
GOM S-76, where despite being contracted by Shell and other oil companies, the VIH Cougar S-61 did not respond).