Cruise Zombie,
you ask,
Any information, or links to information, about such cases which may shine some light on this problem would be very helpful.
There are several references on 'Fear of Flying' among pilots, but if you are looking for the same in classical military setting there is no better reference than
Flying and danger, joy and fear, by Col (Retd) DR Jones.
However in commercial aviation setting, may be the statistics quoted by Chew, in his paper,
Fear of flying - a Singapore perspective, may throw some light.