diff --git a/aodndata/moorings/burst_average.py b/aodndata/moorings/burst_average.py
index aef5947c..4542fa75 100755
--- a/aodndata/moorings/burst_average.py
+++ b/aodndata/moorings/burst_average.py
@@ -58,19 +58,20 @@ def create_burst_average_var(netcdf_file_obj):
 
 def trim_timestamps_burst_vars(burst_vars):
     """
-    Trip timestamps at the start and end of a FV02 file when all FV02 variables
+    Trim timestamps at the start and end of a FV02 file when all FV02 variables
     have a NaN value.
     In details, for every burst var created, look for the first index of non NaN
     value. The lower value will be the one kept, and the new start index of each
     burst variable including the TIME.
     """
     min_index = None
-    for var in burst_vars.keys():
+    for var in list(burst_vars.keys()):
         var_mean_burst = burst_vars[var]['var_mean']  # first non TIME product
         if not np.isnan(var_mean_burst).all():
             min_index_var = next(x for x, y in enumerate(var_mean_burst) if not isnan(y))
         else:
-            min_index_var = 0
+            del burst_vars[var]  # if var only has nan, removing it from burst average file
+            continue
 
         if min_index is None:
             min_index = min_index_var
diff --git a/test_aodndata/moorings/IMOS_ANMN-NRS_FZ_20170929T003418Z_NRSYON_FV01_NRSYON-1709-SRF-ECO-PARSB-1.1_END-20180509T233213Z_C-20190308T030455Z.nc b/test_aodndata/moorings/IMOS_ANMN-NRS_FZ_20170929T003418Z_NRSYON_FV01_NRSYON-1709-SRF-ECO-PARSB-1.1_END-20180509T233213Z_C-20190308T030455Z.nc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4c3439d9
Binary files /dev/null and b/test_aodndata/moorings/IMOS_ANMN-NRS_FZ_20170929T003418Z_NRSYON_FV01_NRSYON-1709-SRF-ECO-PARSB-1.1_END-20180509T233213Z_C-20190308T030455Z.nc differ
diff --git a/test_aodndata/moorings/test_burst_average.py b/test_aodndata/moorings/test_burst_average.py
index 449300ce..d9722544 100644
--- a/test_aodndata/moorings/test_burst_average.py
+++ b/test_aodndata/moorings/test_burst_average.py
@@ -15,6 +15,12 @@
     'IMOS_ANMN-NRS_BCKOSTUZ_20081120T081531Z_NRSROT_FV01_NRSROT-0811-WQM-21_END-20081120T171535Z_C-20190418T000000Z.nc'
 )
 
+INPUT_DEPTH_ALL_BAD_FLAG_FILE = os.path.join(
+    TEST_ROOT,
+    'IMOS_ANMN-NRS_FZ_20170929T003418Z_NRSYON_FV01_NRSYON-1709-SRF-ECO-PARSB-1.1_END-20180509T233213Z_C-20190308T030455Z.nc'
+)
+
+
 STATS = dict(TEMP=ma.masked_values([-999, -999, -999, -999,  4.,  5., 11., 17.], -999),
              TEMP_num_obs=ma.array([0,  0,  0,  0, 61, 61, 11, 21]),
              TEMP_burst_max=ma.masked_values([-999, -999, -999, -999,  4.,  5., 16., 27.], -999),
@@ -32,6 +38,14 @@ def test_burst_average(self):
         for var, values in STATS.items():
             self.assertTrue(np.isclose(values, ds.variables[var][:N_COMP]).all())
 
+    def test_burst_average_bad_flag(self):
+        """
+        testing burst code with input NetCDF containing all bad qc flags for the Depth variable
+        """
+        averaged_file = create_burst_average_netcdf(INPUT_DEPTH_ALL_BAD_FLAG_FILE, self.temp_dir)
+        ds = Dataset(averaged_file)
+        self.assertTrue('DEPTH' not in ds.variables)  # depth variable removed from dataset since only containing NaNs
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()