I work in the industry, no longer travelling offshore, but have flown on all variants from the early 80's, but mainly in Puma's over the last 15 years - in the back of course.
Offshore workers, the majority will not have a high IQ like pilots, and don't know much about flying, and most are not highly technical and can't understand "technical speak". What they see is an increased frequency of accidents and incidents, mainly with super puma variants, 2 in the last 4 years with loss of life, and the others we have been very fortunate in the conditions when the aircraft ditched. I agree that the aircrews are the real experts, and they fly every day in these aircraft, and if you think they have an excellent safety record and are good, then you have to convince the offshore workforce - because it does not look like that to them.
I read the Sintef report posted yesterday, and I'm afraid I don't think it is only luck that the Norwegians have had much less incidents than us, and this must be looked at seriously. The report is very honest and does state that these accidents could have happened in Norway - but they did not. Generally statistics over such a long period don't lie.
From the offshore workforce point of view, it is sensible to ground all pumas until we know what caused this crash - we should already have a good idea from the pilots, although detailed analysis and examination will be required - and the aircraft needs to be recovered first to get to the flight recorders.
Also please don't forget a lot of us knew some of the people that lost their lives. I knew someone on the 2009 crash and the crash on Friday - they were work colleagues, and we spend a large part of our lives living and working together. One of the reasons emotions run high, and unfortunately emotions overule sense immediately after loss of life.
In the back of all variants of Puma, it is cramped and uncomfortable, and yes the size of those of us in the back is also increasing - we maybe need to take some seats out and carry less PAX. I've never flown in an S92 - but those that do say they are similar to the old S61 in terms of space and comfort.