An interesting transformation on palladium-catalyzed carbonylative C-H activation of arenes with norbornene as the coupling partner has been developed. By applying molybdenum hexacarbonyl (Mo(CO)6) or paraformaldehyde as the solid CO sources, various 5-(pyridin-2-yl)-hexahydro-7,10-methanophenanthridin-6(5H)-ones were produced in moderate yields in the presence of palladium catalyst. Interestingly, when DDQ was applied the oxidant, the product was over oxidized to the corresponding 5-(pyridin-2-yl)-tetrahydro-7,10-methanophenanthridin-6(5H)-one. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.