What is missing from the article is the ascent weights were found in a different location as the wreckage, which led to the hypothesis that the passengers knew

What is missing from the article is the ascent weights were found in a different location as the wreckage, which led to the hypothesis that the passengers knew the submersible’s hull was failing and had dropped the weights to ascent. Also, Cameron is the first person to do a solo descent to the Mariana Trench. Based on the interview, he was involved in the engineering and design of that Deepsea Challenger submersible and they concluded that the titanium+carbon-fiber hull design (which Oceangate used) is unsuitable. So, he’s not just “another celebrity”; his testimony carries some weight.