The two were among 100 people who launched a class-action lawsuit against Airbus and aviation technology giant Northrop Grumman, after an Australian Transport Safety Bureau found the A330 suffered a technological malfunction.
All but 11 people had settled their claims, Wisner said.
Another Kiwi flight attendant Sam Perkins, a Royal Oak mum, said last night she was still part of the lawsuit, but did not know what was going on.
The flight was "life changing", she said. "I'm no longer employed by Qantas because I'm no longer medically fit to fly."
Wisner said Airbus and Northrop Grumman had told Wisner they would not contest liability. A US judge is considering whether New Zealand law should apply to the Kiwi claimants' bid for damages.
"If the judge decides New Zealand law does not apply and [Maiava] proceeds, then I think he's going to get a very substantial recovery. If the judge decides New Zealand law applies, he gets zero."
Australian clients will not be affected by the judge's decision, which will follow a hearing in the Illinois Circuit Court on April 3.
Maiava wants at least US$5million ($5.8m). Wisner did not know how much McKay would seek.
The Accident Compensation Act required recipients to repay ACC payments if they received compensation from another party, which should ensure the judge ruled in the Kiwi claimants' favour, he said.
"Otherwise, why would they have that in there?"
ACC spokeswoman Stephanie Melville said Kiwis might be excluded from the compensation part of any class action but they could still claim for "punitive or exemplary actions" as those were not part of ACC payouts.
Maiava said a fourth Kiwi fight attendant, Tasha Foley, was also on the plane, but he had not heard from her since the accident.
He was not letting the fate of the lawsuit derail his recovery.
"I leave it with my lawyers and if it happens, it happens. I'm getting on with my life."
Plane mystery triggers haunting memories
Fuzzy Maiava is in agony.
His legs spasm every day, his head and shoulder ache and his vision just isn't right. Even night brings no relief, his sleep hijacked by flashbacks of 23 seconds he describes as his "near-death experience - twice".
When the North Shore grandfather of seven wakes, he finds a world transfixed by the fate of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, and its 239 men, women and children. Every report on the Boeing 777 is devoured by a bewildered public.
Not Maiava. "I can't handle watching. I just tremble. Fear takes over me. I'm not the person I was before the accident."
Maiava was the sole flight attendant on duty in the rear galley of Perth-bound QF72 in 2008 when an aircraft malfunction caused the A330 to dive headlong 45m in two seconds as part of a 210m, 23-second plunge over the Indian Ocean. The plane dropped from beneath unrestrained passengers and crew with such force their heads punched holes in the underside of overhead lockers.
Maiava was one of the worst injured, and is part of a class action lawsuit against Airbus and aviation technology giant Northrop Grumman.
The 52-year-old, who can no longer work or drive because of his injuries, is seeking at least US$5million ($5.8m).
Dinner service had just ended when the horror on QF72 began. An off-duty Qantas captain and his, also off-duty, flight-attendant wife had joined him.
"All I heard was a massive bang, and I saw the floor disappear from my feet and the captain and his wife going up to the roof. We smashed into the roof." In the cabin, passengers screamed as coffee cups flew and luggage tumbled from broken overhead lockers, Maiava said.
Landing hard, Maiava watched blood spurt from the captain's head, his unconscious wife lying next to him. Maiava desperately wanted to reach two young sisters travelling without their parents, but couldn't move. "They were screaming their lungs out and looking at me. All I could see was their eyes - their tears."
A distressed adult passenger came to the galley with his fully inflated lifejacket choking him, and Maiava instructed the now-conscious off-duty flight attendant to deflate it before yelling, "Get back to your f***ing seat and put your seatbelt on."
Then the jet nosedived a second time. "I thought we were dead. The noise, it's a noise that you know you're going to die ... [the off-duty flight attendant] and I just locked eyes on each other like it was the very last thing we would see before our fate ... I was in shock waiting for it to happen and hoping it would be quick and painless."
But the plane levelled, and Maiava listened as the off-duty flight attendant sang "cheery" children's songs to calm the young sisters, and other passengers joined in as the plane made an emergency landing.
Maiava spent three weeks in a Perth hospital, before returning to New Zealand. But his physical - and mental - recovery goes on.
Both knees have been replaced, and he battles post traumatic stress disorder. Since returning to New Zealand, he has flown twice - a return trip to Samoa after his father died in the 2009 tsunami.
Life is looking up with a Salvation Army volunteer post starting this week. It's put a smile on his face again, Maiava said.
