I think fear of flying has to do with fear of heights. It just feels unnatural.
Then there is the anxiety circle: - There is an event (turbulence). - This triggers a thought of fear (often very fast so it is goes unnoticed). - Your body responds to this thought with stress which is the next event in the circle.
What the author does when he reads books is missing a lot of events that could trigger thoughts of fear. This is one way of overcoming fear.
But maybe a better way is to analyze the thoughts that you had that triggered the stress response. You can analyze those thoughts and ask yourself: is it true what I am thinking? What are the chances?
One thing that also helps with anxiety is to, kind of, embrace it. Something like: 'ah I am having an anxiety attack, lets see what triggered this'.
Well, after being almost smashed to the runway once in heavy turbulence I still don't like flying.
Become braver instead of less afraid.