Aviation Safety Indicators (ASI) was first published in December 1996 as a response to the recommendation to '...prepare and publish safety indicators' contained in the 'Plane Safe' report issued by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport, Communications and Infrastructure.

AS1 is produced jointly by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation and the Department of Transport and Regional
Development. The first report brought together a wide range of data, primarily for the decade from 1986 to 1995, which set benchmarks for on-going monitoring of the safety of aviation in Australia.

The publication, to be published annually, contains data covering the period to the end of the previous calendar year. Thus this second issue, or 1997 edition, includes data to the end of 1996.