It looks like some experts (EASA, FAA & TC) have agreed that the means of compliance used for the S-92s certification is adaquate and should not be perpetuated:
Transportation board says foreign regulators to review helicopter certification - thestar.com
Foreign regulators have promised to review controversial certification rules linked to the crash of a Sikorsky helicopter off Newfoundland, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said Thursday.
The board said the Federal Aviation Administration, Transport Canada and the European Aviation Safety Agency will undertake the review with a view to possibly changing how the aircraft is certified.
The pledge was part of the regulators’ response to recommendations made by the board last February after the crash of a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter in 2009.
The accident killed 17 people and revealed that the helicopter had been given a 30-minute run-dry certification, based on the assumption that the chances of an oil leak were “extremely remote.”
The safety board found the primary cause of the 2009 crash was a massive loss of oil to the chopper’s main gearbox after two of three titanium studs snapped off the oil filter assembly during flight.
The safety board recommended that Transport Canada change regulations so that offshore helicopters are capable of flying without oil in the main gearbox for at least 30 minutes.
The helicopters can still only fly for 11 min
utes in the event of a total loss of oil and the board says it needs a commitment that they will be able to fly for at least 30 minutes after a major oil loss.
“We’d like to have a minimum standard so that all the helicopters in that category, if they lose oil they’ll be able to fly for 30 minutes,” Wendy Tadros, chairwoman of the safety board, said in Gatineau.
“There seems to be good intent there, but we don’t have firm plans or commitments there.”
Tadros said the FAA has said it will look at proposing rule changes to either clarify or eliminate the extremely remote provision.
But she added that changes to the certification may only affect future helicopters and not the S-92.
Some of the families of those lost in the Newfoundland crash have been calling on the regulators to demand that the helicopters be able to fly for at least 30 minutes after a massive oil loss.
The board would like to see that eventually, following a phase-in period.
“The responses are a little bit tentative now,” she said, adding that they include the creation of a task force and focus group. “They have to be firmed up ... so we’ll take another look at them in six months.”
Make offshore oil choppers safer now, says TSB - Business - CBC News
"It is going to take more than promises to solve the safety problems we found," said Tadros [TSB Chair].
"We need firm commitments and action to make these helicopters safer."
They do seem content to leave the S-92 without a full 30 minute capability which is a great concern but at least they are:
1) confirming that the S-92 has an MGB no better then aircraft a generation before it
2) that the marketing of the S-92's safety was hype
3) the 'social media' discussions by 'senior Sikorsky managers' (discussed in the TSB report) rubbishing other types were, at best, grossly misguided
One would at leat hope Sikorsky have the commercial sense to develop the S-92 to match the capability that their competitors have or that their competitors will be required to demonstrate in the products they are currently developing.