Malaysian plane crashes on Ukraine-Russia border - live

[David Guyatt]

For accuracy sake, I am pasting extracts from wiki edits that relate to this service ceiling issue and which happened shortly after the shoot down of MH17 on 17th July 2014.

The following is from today's Wiki entry on the SU25:

2014 Ukrainian unrest

Main articles: 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine and List of Ukrainian aircraft losses during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine
Ukrainian armed forces deployed fixed wing aircraft over insurgent Eastern regions starting in spring 2014, mostly on a reconnaissance and show of force role.[SUP][45][/SUP]On 26 May 2014, Ukrainian Su-25s supported Mi-24s helicopters during a military operation to regain control over the airport in Donetsk, during which the Su-25s fired air to ground rockets. The airport was recaptured with 30-40 casualties on the separatists' side and no losses on the Ukrainian forces.[SUP][46][/SUP] On 2 July 2014, one Ukrainian Su-25 crashed due to a technical fault.[SUP][47][/SUP][SUP][48][/SUP][SUP][49][/SUP]
On 16 July 2014, an Su-25 was shot down, with Ukrainian officials stating that a Russian MiG-29 shot it down using a R-27T missile.[SUP][50][/SUP] Russia denied these allegations.[SUP][51][/SUP]
On 23 July 2014, two Su-25s were shot down in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. A spokesperson for the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine said the planes were shot down by missiles fired from Russia.[SUP][52][/SUP]
On 29 August 2014, a Ukrainian Su-25 was shot down by pro Russian rebels. The Ukrainian authorities said the downing was due to a Russian missile without clarifying if they mean Russian made or fired by Russian forces. The pilot managed to eject safely. On the same day, pro Russian rebels claimed the downing of up to four Su-25s.[SUP][53][/SUP][SUP][54][/SUP]

The next os from the Wiki page dated 21st July 2014:

2014 Ukrainian civil war

Main article: 2014 Ukrainian civil war
Ukrainian armed forces deployed fixed wing aircraft over insurgent Eastern regions starting in spring 2014, mostly on a reconnaissance and show of force role.[SUP][45][/SUP]On 26 May 2014, Ukrainian Su-25s supported Mi-24s helicopters during a military operation to regain control over the airport in Donetsk, during which the Su-25s fired air to ground rockets. The airport was recaptured with 30-40 casualties on the separatists' side and no losses on the Ukrainian forces.[SUP][46][/SUP] On 2 July 2014, one Ukrainian Su-25 crashed due to a technical fault.[SUP][47][/SUP][SUP][48][/SUP][SUP][49][/SUP]
On 16 July 2014, an Su-25 was shot down, with Ukrainian officials stating that a Russian MiG-29 shot it down using a R-27T missile.[SUP][50][/SUP] Russia denied these allegations.[SUP][51][/SUP]
On 21 July 2014, Head of the Main Operations Department of the Russian Army Lieutenant-General Andrey Kartapolov stated that there was no proof for Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 being shot down by a rebel BUK anti-air missile. Instead, the Russian General showed proof of a Ukrainian Su-25 flying as close as 3,000-5,000 meters to the Malaysia aircraft before it crashed; he asked the Ukrainian government for an official statement on this finding,[52].
The service ceiling of SU-25 is 24,000 ft (Sukhoi Company [JSC]). Besides, it can still reach 35,000 ft if only for a little while and attack it's airborne targets (check the term [absolute ceiling ]). SU-25 jet is fully capable of shooting down a Boeing 777 passenger airplane at 33000-35000 feet. And if you consider that one can arm it with just a few AA missiles specifically for this purpose, this capability increases greatly. The missile itself can hit the target up to 6.3 miles away.

You will note that the last para referencing the absolute ceiling of 35,000 ft (actually over 1o kilometres) has been removed and the reason cited for this is:

• (cur | prev) 18:19, 21 July 2014‎ BilCat (talk | contribs)‎ . . (73,768 bytes) (-590)‎ . . (→‎2014 Ukrainian unrest: Removed ridiculous propoganda/fringe theory about an attack plane intercepting an airliner)
  

Source.

The SU25 Wiki entry was edited 41 times on 21st July 2014. It was edited 7 times on 20 July 2014, once on 18th July and once on 17th July 2014. The entry at 1700 on 21st July 2014 shows the service ceiling as:

Performance

• Maximum speed: Mach 0.8 (975 km/h, 526 knots, 606 mph) at sea level
  
• Combat range: 750 km (405 nmi, 466 mi) at sea level, 4,400 kg (9,700 lb) weapons and two external tanks
  
• Service ceiling: 10,000 m (32,808 ft) clean, 5,000 m (16,000 ft) with max weapons
  
• Rate of climb: 58 m/s (11,400 ft/min)
  

This revision was "undone" - with no reason cited 3 minutes later at 17:03 and replaced with:

Performance

• Maximum speed: Mach 0.8 (975 km/h, 526 knots, 606 mph) at sea level
  
• Combat range: 750 km (405 nmi, 466 mi) at sea level, 4,400 kg (9,700 lb) weapons and two external tanks
  
• Service ceiling: 7,000 m (22,965 ft) clean, 5,000 m (16,000 ft) with max weapons
  
• Rate of climb: 58 m/s (11,400 ft/min)
  

What we have today is a sanitised version of the aircraft's performance that is in line with the media story.

PS, earlier version of this Wiki page showed the service ceiling as 7,000 metres dating back a long time. The dispute - or should we call it an edit war? - only started as a consequence of the SU25 being fingered as the culprit and then pooh-poohed in the press as a conspiracy theory. But the volume of editing activity on 21 July raises a question, for me anyway.