EVA Air was forced to cancel dozens of flights on Sunday, when more than 500 flight attendants asked for the day off.

The unusual manpower crunch occurred a day after Typhoon Nesat hit Taiwan on 29 July, also disrupting EVA’s flight operations.

While normal scheduled services were expected to resume on 30 July, the Taiwanese government announced that schools would be closed on Sunday, to help the island recover from the storm. This left hundreds of cabin crew with difficultly finding childcare services and forced to ask for time off.

“We planned to resume normal operations the morning of July 30, after the typhoon had passed through Taiwan. But… by 4am today, more than 500 flight attendants had asked for the day off,” the airline said in a statement. “Though we have mobilised all available personnel, we still do not have a sufficient number of flight attendants on duty to operate all our flights.”

EVA was eventually forced to cancel approximately 50 round-trip flights, affecting more than 10,000 passengers.