Oz,
A conventionally configured airplane without a vertical stab lacks directional stability and authority. Particularly in a swept wing airplane, lacking a rudder leaves the airplane open to spiral and dutch rolling instability. This can quickly compound (particularly in the case of an airplane that was engaging full rudder deflections to counteract a wake turbulence encounter).
While sideloads on the fuselage contribute somewhat to directional stability, without a significantly large enough surface with which the airplane can "weathervane" (align itself with the slipstream) it quickly becomes directionally unstable. Depending on the loading of the airplane, this divergence in some cases could easily roll the airplane over in one or two osciallations, or it could continue for a time before control is lost...or it might theoretically be possible under the right calm conditions to actually return and land.
The results of the loss, however, were what made the papers, and are self-evident.