I'd say at the time this was a pretty original premise. I wouldn't say it's a classic, but it should be at least noteworthy.

This film made me have like the biggest fear on planes when I was a kid

The one that started it all. It has a great concept that scores it some serious originality points. I mean the whole idea "how about we forget about traditional antagonists in horror movies and instead make death itself the killer" was pretty novel I'd say. Slap a little bit but not too much mythos in there to explain how the rules of death work and this movie is off and chugging. Definitely worth a watch if nothing else to see a horror movie that takes a wildly different direction.