Say you, too, had wanted to meet Tom Osborne and Harvey Perlman at the Lincoln airport Monday to ask how the coaching search is going.

Would’ve been easier than you thought.

Thanks to a Web site called flightaware.com, you can track most any plane flying the friendly skies — including the private jet Osborne, Nebraska’s interim athletic director, and Perlman, UNL chancellor, hopped Sunday to interview Bo Pelini in Baton Rouge, La.

Here’s how:

1. On the flightaware.com home page, type in Lincoln’s airport code, LNK, under the “Flight Tracker” tab. Click “View Airport Activity” and you’ll see a screen showing the planes that have come and gone through Lincoln over the past few days.

2. Rest your mouse over any plane’s ID code, and you’ll find out who owns the plane.

Astute Husker fans will notice a twin jet (N7NE) owned by Norfolk Iron & Metal Co., whose president, Dick Robinson, is a prominent booster, arrived in Lincoln from Atlanta at 8:42 p.m. Monday.

Atlanta, it so happens, is the home base of Parker Executive Search, the search firm helping find NU’s next coach. Hmmm…

3. Click on that jet’s ID, N7NE, and you’ll find more: On Sunday, that plane took off for Baton Rouge, home of Pelini, defensive coordinator at Louisiana State and a front-runner for the NU job.

Coincidence? Not quite.

Now you know.

So, hypothetically, let’s say you check the airport’s schedule and find a jet departed for Winston-Salem, N.C., this morning and is due back late tonight. Coach Jim Grobe rolls off the tongue pretty nice, doesn’t it, Osborne?

— Melissa Lee